By Rabbi Avrohom Brashevitzky – Chabad of Doral, FL
My friend, R’ Mordechai Goldin, passed away last week at the age of 59.
You might wonder how exactly was he my friend. When was the last time I spoke with him? When was the last time I even saw him? Was I at his simches?!
The truth is I haven’t spoken with Mordechai since I called him to wish him Mazal Tov for his son’s wedding last year. I haven’t spoken with him prior to that – for a very long time. In fact, I can’t even tell you when was the first time we ever spoke.
Was it in Camp Gan Israel when he was running the Russian Division? Was it when he was organizing the beloved Shabbatons at FREE and looking for bochurim to assist? Was it in his capacity as a bus driver for school or day camp? Or was it just a casual conversation on a weekday morning in 770?
Perhaps he had more things in common with his friends who left Russia than with me; perhaps he spent more time with his friends at the Shabbos farbrengens than with me; he must have spoken more with the children on the school bus or at his ice cream truck than with me…
But I am confidently stating that he was my friend.
Reb Mordechai stands out in my memory – in the beauty of being in 770 at the time after Gimmel Tammuz 5754. I can’t deny that there were days when my sole motivation to go to the late Shacharis minyan was to chat with Mordechai.
In those conversations, he imparted his deep sense of Emunah in Hashem. An inquisitive and skeptical thinker by nature, Mordechai needed to understand things on his own and just be told what to believe or think. It had to make sense to him.
Mordechai embodied the concept of “Elokus B’pshitus” (simplicity in faith). Perhaps he wasn’t a great scholar in Chassidus, but he knew G-d. He didn’t just believe, he knew! I vividly recall certain events (big and small) that “totally made sense” to him because he knew it’s from Hashem.
The truth is that he wasn’t only my friend.
He was friendly and freely chatted with me like he did with everyone else. He was everyone’s friend. You always got the feeling he was your friend. He made you feel that he be’emes is fully there and he was. He was true, genuine and with love and friendship towards another Yid. No frills, no fancy Shtick, just Mordechai.
This past Thursday night, when I saw the news on COLlive.com about his passing, it struck me a little odd.
It was clearly him in the picture – smile, warmth and grace. But I was looking for the “real him.” In the picture, he is wearing a black hat and Kapote which was very nice and appropriate, but I was looking for “my friend Mordechai.”
I was looking for the Balshemske Temimusdike chossid in the plain simple weekday clothing or skiing gear heading out to inspire a group of Russian youngsters. This chossid shined in those plaid shirts and khaki pants. He looked okay in “the garb” but he shined in “his” typical, poshuteh uniform.
I, and the many who got to know him, will miss the brown FREE van, the big yellow school bus, the skiing gear, the Chama Mitzvah Tank, the cross country trips, the down to earth conversations…
One of my highlights of the annual Kinus Hashluchim convention was to bump into Mordechai, the simple Shliach, and have a nostalgic friendly chat, albeit quick. It’s hard to imagine that until Moshiach comes we will not have the privilege to enjoy his radiant presence.
I went to Yeshiva with both Reb Mordechai A”H and his brother Eli Zol Zein Gezundt&Shtark….They were both such nice fine people. I later reunited with Reb Mordechai when he was visiting a relative at Palm Gardens Nursing Home (where I work) and he was so happy to see me after so many yrs apart; but Reb Mordechai had the ability to make you feel that it was only one week not many yrs since one saw the other. I think IF you could sum up in one word (not really a good idea) One could say the word “machshaved”… Read more »
I think I know it’s so hard to capture who exactly your father z”l was. It’s because for many many people he meant *so* much, it’s hard to quantify, let alone eloquently express. So I speak to friend of mine from Russia, who last saw your father 9 years ago. He is crying. Not weeping, crying. Grown up man with kids. How do you write about it? He probably only now realized what your father meant to him when he was young man. Another encounter from the same day, another friend of mine, shliach, tells me: “Mordechai was not “just… Read more »
Hopefully moshiach will come NOW so we can be reunited with this wonderful man,freind,neibor,cousin,brother,uncle,husband,father
don’t know who the author of the article is. I may have met him once or twice when my father introduced me, but I really appreciate the article. When they had announced the passing of my father as the ice cream man or bus driver, it didn’t sit right with me. My father was a lot more than the nice guy who always had a smile on his face… to me, my family, and apparently majority of crown Heights too. This article doesn’t completely capture my father, but it definitely comes closer. It is still lacking the ability to capture… Read more »
On the button Avremel! In addition, im amazed how i thought i was the privileged one.. now i see how he was doing the same for so many people…. the way he would show his confidence in me and as if he was receiving inspiration from me all the while really imparting inspiration with his chayus. his radiaing face when meeting you would make you feel like a million dollars!
Just like you i will be missing that burst of revival energy when coming to newyork and meeting up with mordechai
May Hashem send comfort to his wife and children!
we will carry on his ahavas yisroel and positive attitude, and it will keep him with us.
When I read this it reminded me of my relationship with Mordechai. Somehow I got to know him when I worked for camp free and although it was only for a couple months , he is the kind of person who is a friend and you feel close too even if you don’t speak to him. He was just friendly, caring, sincere and really geshmak.. Will miss you
Yosef Muchnik
First of all, thank you for writing this article, it is heart warming to see how many people think positively of this wonderful man. However, as someone who spent many hours with him, I feel that it is a severe injustice to call Mordachai a simple Jew. He and I spent many hours debating and discussing complex concepts, both in Chassidus and otherwise. Any of piece of advice that he ever gave was always thought out thoroughly beforehand. .Many of his close friends are of the intellectual elite. He was a man that had a fire in him, that was… Read more »
Everytime i passed by him in the street or waved to him in his bus i felt like I had a good friend lighten my load. On a side note, he did know a great deal of Chassidus yet at the same time spoke to a people on their own level.
Now, you’re making me cry with this article. Amazing how you got it right. Dear concerned Mordechai, always wlling with energy to give personal care to people – to help someone
with his time and also b’gashmius. So informal and therefore able to be so kind.
The words can not capture all of the beauty of Mordechay and his family. Pure, open hearted, we need more people like that.
Mordechay, we miss you.
If somebody could post Goldin’s phone number it would be greatly appritiated.
Kamenetsky family
What a beautiful person!!
even though i would see Mordichai only about 1 – 3 x a year, it was as if we never lost sight of each other. thats the was it has been since the first time in the early 80’s when he first came to Morristown, when he was learning Hebrew, Aramaic, Yiddish and English all at the same time and mixing them up sometimes by accident, sometimes for a laugh.
He will surely be missed by all of us.
Radiant presence that illuminated the world we need Moshiach Now!
In addition to his pure faith in hashem, he also did know a great deal of chassidus. Though, he was more famous for his chassidish maises… He inspired me a great deal from his stories he would say about the alter chassidim.