Eliezer Goldberg, spoke to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News about his brother, Rabbi Avi Goldberg, who fell in southern Lebanon; about their relationship and about his brother’s views on the debate in Israel of learning Torah and/or serving in the army.
Eliezer Goldberg says that Avi, “was like every brother. We had our small jokes, but there's quite a big age difference between us, almost 5 years, so when I was a soldier, he was just Bar Mitzvah. In the early days we were like every two boys. We fought with each other and played together. I looked after him later on in life and we tried to stay connected as much as we could. Life took us down different paths, but we were always talking and updating each other on our lives, our kids, trying to connect as much as we could.”
Goldberg says that “there’s a sentence in Mishlei (Proverbs), that says that, ‘the way you look at water and see your face looking back at you, that's how the heart of a human being is to another human being.’ I think that was Avi. Wherever he went, he had a big heart, he smiled. But it wasn't a smile showing his teeth, it was his heart smiling and people's heart opened to him. You know when you smile from your heart, the other person smiles back at you. That's what he did. He smiled and he laughed, and people loved him. You could not dislike him. He touched on so many souls and people; his kids in school, his family, his community, just random people. So many people are coming to the Shiva and we're learning more and more things about him, because he was always doing things. He was creative, he found ways of doing good to others. He always had an open house and an open heart, from a very true and deep place. He never publicized anything. He always did and he was loved.”
“Avi loved Torah. He loved learning, he never stopped learning. You could never begin a conversation with him without him quoting [some source]. He was a real talmid chacham [learned Torah student]. Not just Talmud and Tanakh, he knew everything, different commentaries, Jewish thought and philosophy. He knew everything and he had this passion for Torah. There was no contradiction, because he was a soldier, a fighter. He started off as a fighter in the army and then in the reserves. All through the years he always did miluim [reserve duty], he never gave up. He had six kids and at that point the army released him and said, ‘go home.’ But he continued to volunteer. A bit over two years ago he decided that he wanted to become a military Rabbi [chaplain] and he spent a month in the summer, instead of being on vacation, doing a military rabbis’ course,” boasts Goldberg about his brother.
He continued to say that, “like everything else he did in life, he was the best. He was awarded the best soldier award in the course and when they had to decide where to post him, he insisted on being in a fighting unit. He wanted to be on the front line. He believed that being a rabbi is not a contradiction to being a fighter, but it was one identity. It wasn't about being a rabbi and a fighter. He was a fighter-Rabbi, a Rabbi-fighter.”
Regarding the debate these days in Israel on Yeshiva and serving in the army, Goldberg says that Avi, “believed and lived under the deep belief that the Torah is the ‘Torah of Life.’ You don't combine these two things together. We are Bnei Torah, sons of Hashem, and we take the Torah with us to all that we do. So it's not a contradiction; it's a way of life. He believed that our brothers who are learning Torah and who do not serve in the army, should be serving in the army. He didn't think it's a contradiction. That's the way of life he led. He believed that you can be a Ben Torah, you can learn Torah, you can live the Jewish way of life. You don't have to give up on anything and you can do it in the army. It's part of our duty, it's part of our way of life here in Eretz Yisrael, that we should all be ‘Torah learners and army servers.’ Not from a place of accusing or pointing a finger at anyone or being hating anyone, but from a place of true Ahavat Yisrael [love of the entire Jewish People], that we should all be doing it together. He believed that that's the way to do it, that's the way he did it, that's the way all of us should be doing it. Being People of the Torah and Faith, and being in the army, being part of the commitment of protecting the country of God.”