On My Mind

Confession: I am a Goldberger Chassid. He brought me in. Picked me out of the shul after he returned from a Sabbatical when I was at a low point in life having just had a surgical death, my first. Put out a warm friendly hand, shook it, looked in my eyes and said Good Shabbos, and didn’t I meet you before at Bruce Blumenthal’s sons Bar Mitavah two years ago? Yes, I did. You are Dr. Leventhal. He recognized the invalidity of my wife’s conversion and gave us the room to grow and mature and understand the problem ourselves. Did my wife’s real conversion as well as the conversion of my kids who were by definition not Jewish. Remarried me and my wife for the third and hopefully final time. Has been there for me whenever I needed him as I have tried my best to be there for him when he needed me. There is only one Rabbi Goldberger. TY will not be the same if he leaves. But I would never begrudge anyone a move that they felt was necessary and in the best interest of them and their family. And while that is the intellectual mature side of me, the other side of me is in spiritual pain. Because he is my Rabbi and as important he is my friend. I wish Rabbi Goldberger well in whatever he does. And in whatever he does he will succeed, because of his midot, and ahavas Yisroel, and because well…. because he is Rabbi Goldberger. I don’t know if he will make this move. I do know this however, Shomrei Emunah does not realize what a gem he is. And with their size they will never get to know him on a personal level as we at TY have. One can only spread oneself so thin. I hope for his sake, if he makes the move, that there is enough Rabbi Goldberger to go around for such a large family as Shomrei. In any case, he will always be my Rabbi and just as important, he will always be my friend.