"He may look like a mortal being, just another man of flesh
and blood," remarked the Chazon Ish of a certain ben
Torah, "but in truth he is not. He is actually a
mal'ach, an angel of Hashem."
Such a man was Rav Eliyohu Boruch Goldschmidt, zt'l,
mashgiach ruchani of Yeshiva Gedolah Zichron Moshe of
South Fallsburg, and long-time member of the Kollel of Beis
Medrash Govoha, Lakewood. His passing on 26th Menachem Av, at
the early age of sixty-five -- suddenly and swiftly and
without warning -- has shocked and stunned the communities of
Lakewood, South Fallsburg, and the entire Torah world.
Rav Eliyohu Boruch, warmly known to all as Rav Elya, hailed
from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where his parents had moved in
1938, along with their three-year-old son, in flight from
Nazi Germany. Implanting, to the best of their ability, their
staunch Jewish values in the midbar which was
Argentinean Jewry at that time, the young Elya was educated
in the finest traditions of German Jewry, becoming at an
early age an outstanding example of their love of truth,
meticulous adherence to mitzvos and passion for integrity.
But, lacking the opportunity for advanced Torah study, the
young Rav Elya chose to wed these qualities to a career in
medicine. However, Hashem had other plans!
With the inspiration of Rav Altman, and Rav Pecker, Mirrer
talmidim from Shanghai who settled in South America
after the war and became his main teachers, Rav Elya looked
forward to a projected yeshiva planned by HaRav Zeidel
Semiaticki, zt'l and the chance for intense Torah
learning that this promised. When this promise was tragically
thwarted by Rav Zeidel's untimely passing shortly after
reaching Buenos Aires, Rav Elya made the immediate decision --
at Rav Zeidel's levaya! -- to satisfy his awoken thirst
for truth.
Rav Elya's move to Lakewood in 1960 marks his departure not
only from his home, his country and his medical studies, but
his absolute separation from any trace of the standards and
fantasies of the secular world which had unavoidably impinged
upon his youth. The new yeshiva bochur was met with the
warm embrace of his rosh yeshiva, the godol
hador, HaRav Aharon Kotler, zt'l, who encouraged him
greatly and actually appointed Rav Elya to be the baal
tefilla on the Yomim Noraim even as a bochur
(a role he filled for the rest of his life). Rav Aharon,
indeed, remained his primary mentor and even though Rav Elya
spent only one and a half years in his presence, he continued
to feel Rav Aharon's influence in Lakewood in a palpable way
throughout his life.
Supremely inspired, Rav Elya literally threw himself into the
yeshiva world and simply never left it. The dimension of
unceasing Torah study was not only added to his other fine
qualities, it raised and honed these qualities until they
were fused with Torah in his own person as one composite
whole. He became, as HaRav Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, rosh
yeshivas Lakewood, elucidated at the levaya, the
embodiment of the verse "You shall walk after the L-rd your G-
d," (Devorim 13:5, see Sotah 14a).
Rav Elya represents the triumph of the spirit over the
physical world. His twenty years in the kollel of Bais
Medrash Govoha, followed by twenty more in the capacity of
mashgiach ruchani in South Fallsburg, were an ongoing
symphony of Torah, tefillo and gemilus chassodim.
Tutored and fired by his close an intimate connection with
the revered mashgiach HaRav Nosson Meir Wachtfogel,
zt'l, Rav Elya welded his own mussar approach to
his earnest desire to help others to develop their potential.
By the time Rav Elya left the Kollel, he was giving an
amazing twenty-one mussar va'adim a week, each to a
different group, each catering to its particular needs. (Some
of these va'adim actually continued when Rav Elya
returned for Shabbos to Lakewood, which remained his primary
residence.)
At the same time, however, Rav Elya never ceased to work on
himself. HaRav Elya Ber Wachtfogel, the rosh yeshiva of
South Fallsburg, attests that in all his years as
mashgiach, Rav Elya maintained the sedorim of the
yeshiva and learned the yeshiva masechtas in spite of
his heavy workload and the one-to-one relationship he
maintained with each bochur. (Recording his many
chiddushei Torah with care and precision, he was
currently preparing a sefer on maseches Sotah.)
Rav Elya was suddenly niftar Sunday 26 Av in the midst
of working on a new sefer on sholom bayis
entitled Dear Son, planned as a counterpart to his best-
selling Dear Daughter on the same subject.
His ability to deal face-on with this very real issue, along
with the many other human issues which were addressed to him
by the countless individuals who sought his counsel,
establishes Rav Elya as the archetypical "mal'ach in
human guise" to which the Chazon Ish referred. He was able to
live in the world and yet not be burdened by it. At the same
time he was able to uplift and enrich this world for the
betterment of all.
His own illustrious family of children and grandchildren, all
following in his ways, are a shining example of the innate
quality of his teachings.
Rav Elya's final words in the unfinished manuscript of
Dear Son read: "Not everything that happens in life can
be understood in twenty-five seconds and decided in ten
seconds." To us, who cannot grasp the meaning of his passing,
and are left bereft of his direction, he has once again
provided us with sage advice.
