I don’t post much and truthfully my head is still swimming; I haven’t stopped crying in two days, but I knew Rabbi Avi Goldberg, z”l v’yd well and in his honor I share some thoughts.
We met the Goldbergs when we both moved to Memphis in 2008. We were coming from New Jersey, they were coming on shlichut from Yerushalayim. We became fast friends and our families have been friends for 15 years.
The word that best describes Avi for me is radiant. You can see it in pictures of him even if you never met him. The glow in his eyes, the smile that was almost always on his face. He was m’kabeil et kol adam bsever panim yafot. I would add that when I say kol adam, I purposefully intend a broad swath of people. Living out of town, in a city like Memphis, you interact with Jews from across the religious spectrum, and Avi had a way with everyone. He could talk in learning with Rav Nota Greenblatt, z”l and then later have a long conversation with unaffiliated Jews at the JCC. He told me about his experiences doing weddings through Tzohar with more unaffiliated Jews. He told me that he met couples before their wedding and that he became their rabbi and primary reference for anything Jewish. I understood exactly why he was so successful. It was more than a smile, which is why I say he was radiant, he just gave off a positive energy that if you never met him is hard to describe.
Avi loved Torah. He was always looking to learn. Every time we spoke, at some point in the conversation we would talk Torah. I spent Shabbos in the Goldberg home twice in the past two years. We sat at the table with seforim, and our children, for hours. I have vivid memories of Avi’s earlier days in Memphis trying to teach when his English was not as strong. In those early days his radiance drew people in and allowed him to form connections with people, he was Ohev et Habriot Umikarvan L’Torah. We had a good laugh when we spent shabbos by him last year and he asked me to speak in his shul in Hebrew; for all the times I had him speak in English, I owed him at least one in Hebrew.
Avi’s radiance shone through his music as well. Avi played the clarinet, his wife Rachel, the violin. I have wonderful memories of them playing together. I have no idea what makes a great musician, Avi was certainly a very capable one, but you could feel that his music was an expression of his soul. Listening to him play you felt his radiance shine through and it pulled you in.
Avi also wasn’t just a bookworm and musician, he was an athlete. We played basketball with the students in Memphis. I don’t recall him being Michael Jordan, but he made the game fun, you wanted to play with him. Again, he met the students where they were and drew them into his sphere of influence.
Avi loved Israel. I can’t recall how many times we spoke about aliyah. We actually disagreed a bunch about aliyah when we lived in Memphis. Avi was always preaching about Eretz Yisroel and I would try to remind him that we were trying to build the Jewish community in Memphis. He never came around, he was a real shaliach in that sense. He thought it was our duty to be part of the Jewish story which is unfolding in Israel. Years later, after he was back in Yerushalayim and we were back in New York when we were planning our aliyah, he told me that after living in America he greater appreciated how much of a sacrifice and how large a commitment it is to make aliyah, and yet he was unmoved about our responsibility to be here.
Speaking about Yerushalayim, Avi loved Yerushalayim. When we were planning our aliyah and we were speaking about different communities, I asked Avi if he ever thought about moving. He laughed, he said Yerushalayim is our capital, the home of David HaMelech, where we will rebuild the Beit HaMikdash, why would he consider moving?!
He also liked to tinker. I remember him building beds, trying to make sourdough. He was interested in things and willing to try something new. I walked away from many of our conversations thinking “that guy is amazing.”
At the levaya last night Avi’s mother said that the world is poorer without him. To my ears that was an understatement. He was the best of us. He was a Talmid Chacham, a mentsch, a man who understood people, looked to connect with them and spread his mission of progress, avodas Hashem, Eretz Yisroel and geula.
I hope this helps paint a picture for those who didn’t know him, Tihey Nishmato Tzerura Btzur HaChaim.
Aaron Feigenbaum is a rebbe at Aish Gesher, Lindenbaum Seminary, and Shaalvim for Women. Before making aliyah he served as the rabbi of the Irving Place Minyan in Woodmere, New York, the Rav Bet Sefer at HAFTR, and the rabbi of the Young Israel of Memphis. He lives in Efrat with his wife and six children.
