Dear Rabbi Gutman,
When I heard of your passing this morning I immediately called a high school friend of mine who was close to you and Mrs. Gutman. About an hour later I received a phone call from another high school friend who heard the news from a third friend. She had called another former classmate before calling me. Later on I spoke to different former classmate who had been planning on sending me an e-mail.
None of us, your former students, had to state a reason for the phone call. It was obvious. We had contacted each other to share in the grief, and to share the memories of the best teacher we ever had.
This is just one example of the connection you made with your students and the connection they in turn felt with each other.
Often, when one of us would speak to you for advice on any topic, we would share it with our friends, knowing that anything Rabbi Gutman said was held in high esteem.
Your complete and total devotion to all of your students was indescribable. There really are no words to explain how available you constantly were to any former student. When one of us would speak to you we would be updated on former schoolmates or Denverites since almost everybody kept in touch with you.
And you made sure to inquire after the welfare of those you didnt speak to.
One of your most devoted and loving students, Dr. Phil Mehler, who is now the chief medical officer of Denver Health, described this great quality of yours when he told me that you provided moral aptitutde and unselfish devotion to students.
Your excitement and enthusiasm for Torah and for life in general drew your students close to you. When I was in eleventh grade three or four of us came to your house to get help for a dvar Torah for color war. We ended staying there for four hours listening to stories about Rav Aharon Kotler, Rav Yaakov Kamenecki and other great scholars of the previous generations.
I was once having a discussion with you about the challenges being an Orthodox Jew in a secular college. I ended up complaining about my calculus class and you laughed and explained to me where calculus is used in the Talmud. You were able to transmit a love for Torah and an excitement to know more into the next generation.
And you taught so many next generations!
Your humility was a huge part of who you were. One student related that if something had to get done, you would do it, regardless of what it was. You didnt consider anything beneath you.
When students would ask you Halachah questions you would often answer, ask your local rabbi! But you were our local rabbi even though you didnt consider yourself any different from a simple Jew.
I once called you to ask for the sources for specific laws pertaining to married women covering their hair. You sent an e-mail with the background and sources, including the opinions of different scholars on the topic. At the end of the letter you apologized for sending such a long e-mail. This was after you sat down and took the time to put the letter together, as a favor. Your humility made you so approachable.
You were so lofty yet so down to earth at the same time. You were able to relate to so many people, regardless of background or personality. This is what made you so popular among your students.
You lived life with simcha joy. I dont remember ever seeing you without a smile, or ever having a telephone conversation without hearing a laugh multiple times. There was many a time when a student was in distress and would turn to you for encouragement. Those smiles and laughs, the cheerfulness, would begin to lift the person out of despair, even before the problem was addressed.
You once received some books from a student as a gift. You wrote the name of that student inside the books so that you could remember your gratitude toward him every time you opened them.
You felt that it was so important to express gratitude in life, for the big things, and the small. You would try to attend the weddings of your students whether near or far. The drive from Lakewood, NJ, to Brooklyn, Long Island, and Monsey is not a short drive. Yet you tried to be there for the joyous occasions of your students because you knew it meant so much to them.
You and Mrs. Gutman opened your home to your students and made them feel as if they were your own sons and daughters.
This letter is a only fraction of the feelings and experiences that we, your students, were privileged to have. Yet the greatness that you were is constantly being passed down from your students who are now teachers themselves, and from students who pass down your lessons to their children.
In our deep sorrow and devastation for our loss, we can only thank Hashem that we were lucky enough to call you our teacher.
Riki Goldberg
Riki Goldberg Kushnir, a graduate of Beth Jacob High School of Denver and CU, lives in Passaic, New Jersey.
Read the complete obituary.
