Memories & Tributes

“A collection of tribute posts collected on Facebook (they will all be added individually to this site for preservation)”

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1912225592843831/

— A former student

“So many memories of a wonderful, wonderful man. My rebbe, my therapist, my friend. There's so much to share, but I'll just add a few memories here, and perhaps add more later. 1. This photo is from 1995 (I think - it doesn't look like the bank, so I assume it's when I came back for an Ellul at the new campus). Rabbi Ebner is about the same age in this photo as I am now, which is a very strange realisation. 2. The WhatsApp screenshot is far more recent and encapsulates so much of Rabbi Ebner in just a few short sentences. The eternal teacher, the palpable nachat he got from each of his students, even decades later, the remarkable memory, the inimitable smile emanating through the words on the screen, the blessings. 3. Rabbi Ebner wasn't a chazzan, he was a shaliach tzibbur, in the most literal sense of those words. In those (too) few times I got to daven with him on RH and YK, I would feel my prayers carried high on his shoulders, and then too on subsequent years when I was fortunate to daven with other talmidim using those same tunes. But even on those "normal" in-shabbatot, who can forget Rabbi Ebner's Lecha Dodi? The baalei tefilla in this group may want to consider using it this Friday night, as Rabbi Ebner spends his first shabbat in Shamayim. 4. The stick. Who in his shiur could forget the stick? One of the gentlest men you could ever meet, but with a mental ferocity that demanded the best from his talmidim. There was one profoundly impactful moment when someone in shiur questioned the gemara's logic in a somewhat disparaging way (32 years later, I vividly recall the words "cockamamie mishegas" being used by the unwitting student). The next thing we heard was that stick crashing down on that table (I don't recall if the table survived). It was as if Rabbi Ebner felt the (unintended) insult to our Tannaim and Amoraim in a deeply visceral way. 5. I remember spraining my ankle on the football pitch in Lower Gefen, just opposite our dorms (Dahan). The care I received from Rabbi Ebner when he sent me off to see his cousin Dr Applebaum HY"D at a nascent Terem in Jerusalem. My 18 year old self had no sense that something as banal as my sprained ankle was consuming the time of tzadikkim and talmidei chachamim. 6. I had the privilege, together with Eliot Kaye, to bring Rabbi Ebner to Leeds University for a Student Yarchei Kallah (we believe the first of its kind in the UK, and perhaps elsewhere). The story of him accidentally walking into the Student Union bar (then, the longest in the world!) has by now been written into lore, but when I think about the mesirut nefesh it must have taken to leave one's family for a week to spend it with unwashed students, in the equally unwashed city of Leeds, it's just remarkable. But that was Rabbi Ebner. Was there a sacrifice too great for chinuch, too great for his talmidim? And of the so many things I take from Rabbi Ebner, that one shines bright. Chinuch is not a profession, it's a value, it's a goal, it's a way of life. The greatest insult was to be an am haaretz. I'm sure I'm not alone in this group at recoiling, to this day, at the sight of an Artscroll gemara - on someone else's shelf of course, because it would be an insult to Rabbi Ebner to have one on mine 🙂. Don't just read books, learn them. Listen to the music, don't just hear it. See each paint stroke on the canvas. The world is a beautiful place, if only you look. May his memory be for a blessing, and may each one of us carry that blessing to our families and children for generations to come.”

In Memory of Rav David Ebner | So many memories of a wonderful, wonderful man | Facebook

— Phil Schajer

Rabbi David Ebner: A sharp, sensitive, story-telling rabbi | The Jerusalem Post
When he led us in prayer, we felt the heavens open. Amid the awe, he would sweep us up in joyous dance, drawing his students into the profound intensity of his prayers.

— Gideon Sylvester, Jerusalem Post

In Memory of Rav David Ebner | When I learned of the passing of my Rebbi
When I learned of the passing of my Rebbi, Rabbi Dovid Ebner, it felt as though I had lost another parent. He was, without question, the finest teacher I ever encountered. I joined his shiur...

— Jeremy Bruce

“He was my Rebbe for almost 20 years, and there are too memories to share, from our weekly chavruta on the Sfat Emet, to my wedding and other life events. I never had a way with words the way he did, so I will just share a few pictures.”

— Ilan Regenbaum, He was my Rebbe