Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #01: Random Learning Session with Ben and Me and 2011
I wrote this as a Facebook post two years ago shortly after receiving the news that my dear rebbi, R' Morton Moskowitz zt"l, had died. I'm sharing it here on the occasion of his 2nd yahrzeit.
The Torah content for this week has been sponsored by Judah and Naomi Dardik in honor of Rabbi Moskowitz's second yahrzeit and in appreciation for all those whose love of Torah and excitement for ideas shines in their teaching.
Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article.
In honor of the second yahrzeit of my rebbi, Rabbi Morton Moskowitz zt"l, I will be reposting all the "Rabbi Moskowitz Memory” Facebook posts that I wrote during the week of his passing. I’m not going to edit any of them unless I find a typo. I want to preserve the spontaneous writing I did during that intense period of grieving.
I wrote this on May 30, 2022 (Iyyar 29, 5782), shortly after receiving the news of his death, before the funeral.
Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #01: Random Learning Session with Ben and Me and 2011
(I had a strong impulse to put something formal together, and maybe someday I will, but I know that my perfectionist impulses will inhibit me, so I figured I'd just post whatever thoughts, memories, and stories that come to me over the course of my own grieving period, and we'll see where that leads. I'm going to give each of these a number and a hashtag to make them easier to find on Facebook, in case you want to read them all in sequence.)
This is a photo of me, Ben, and Rabbi Moskowitz which was taken in 2001 (I believe) during our junior year at NYHS. I think it would be accurate to say that Ben and I have a shared relationship with Rabbi Moskowitz, and that fact has made this loss easier to come to terms with. We've spoken with each other for many hours this week (and countless hours before that) about Rabbi Moskowitz and the unique relationship we had with him.
God willing, both of us will be speaking at the levaya today, and have commiserated with each other about the impossible task of giving Rabbi Moskowitz eulogies which are befitting of his kavod (honor) AND which convey our personal thoughts and feelings AND are only 5-10 minutes long. It is a truly impossible task, but one I am grateful to undertake.
I began this morning by listening to a recording of a "random" summer learning session we had with Rabbi Moskowitz in 2011. To appreciate the significance of this particular recording, you need to understand something about how Rabbi Moskowitz typically recorded. People have asked me for recommendations of recorded shiurim they can listen to from Rabbi Moskowitz, and I always answer in the same way: listening to a recording of a Rabbi Moskowitz class is like reading a summary of the "conclusions" in a Socratic dialogue. Sure, there's value in the ideas, but the REAL value is in the discussion itself. Unfortunately, Rabbi Moskowitz's style of recording shiurim (during our years, anyway) was to only record the summaries and not the discussion.
For some reason, this was one of the rare recordings for which he left the tape running the entire time. I suspect it's because this was not a formal shiur or class, but it was a private learning session which was part of our ongoing (and unfinished) attempt to write a Mishleic Lexicon, in which we set out to learn every pasuk about every Mishleic personality type and formulate definitions of each.
There is something idyllic about this recording. It's a slice of time from a bygone era: Rabbi Moskowitz was still in his prime, I had only begun teaching a few years earlier, and we were just learning with him without a care in the world — as we had done for many summers, and would (thank God) continue to do for many more.
But around 6 or 7 minutes into the shiur, I experienced a sharp moment of poignancy. We were in the middle of working on the definition of the Mishleic leitz ("scoffer"). We were learning a pasuk which contrasted the leitz with the anav ("humble person") and we were learning Rabbeinu Yonah's commentary. When we realized that Rabbeinu Yonah was presupposing a certain conception of humility, Rabbi Moskowitz said, "Should we come back to that later?" and I said, "Yeah, let's come back to that later."
I don't know whether we came back to it later. All I know is that in that moment, it was pashut (obvious) that we'd have infinite time to revisit the topic. Obviously, none of us ACTUALLY thought that we'd have infinite time, but clearly, that's how it felt in the moment. And it's that feeling — the irrational feeling of having infinite time with my rebbi — which is irrevocably and undeniably lost.
Ideas are eternal. Human beings are not. How wonderful it is that we mortal creatures have been granted the opportunity to brush up against that eternality during the brief span of time we have been given on this earth.
If you have any thoughts on this or any of your own memories of Rabbi Moskowitz you’d like to share, I would love to hear them! I’ll make sure they reach Mrs. Moskowitz as well.
Like what you read? Give this article a “like” and share it with someone who might appreciate it!
Want access to my paid content without actually paying? If you successfully refer enough friends, you can get access to the paid tier for free!
Interested in reading more? Become a free subscriber, or upgrade to a paid subscription for the upcoming exclusive content!
If you've gained from what you've learned here, please consider contributing to my Patreon at www.patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss. Alternatively, if you would like to make a direct contribution to the "Rabbi Schneeweiss Torah Content Fund," my Venmo is @Matt-Schneeweiss, and my Zelle and PayPal are mattschneeweiss at gmail. Even a small contribution goes a long way to covering the costs of my podcasts, and will provide me with the financial freedom to produce even more Torah content for you.
If you would like to sponsor a day's or a week's worth of content, or if you are interested in enlisting my services as a teacher or tutor. Thank you to my listeners for listening, thank you to my readers for reading, and thank you to my supporters for supporting my efforts to make Torah ideas available and accessible to everyone.
-----
Substack: rabbischneeweiss.substack.com/
Patreon: patreon.com/rabbischneeweiss
YouTube: youtube.com/rabbischneeweiss
Instagram: instagram.com/rabbischneeweiss/
"The Stoic Jew" Podcast: thestoicjew.buzzsprout.com
"Machshavah Lab" Podcast: machshavahlab.buzzsprout.com
"The Mishlei Podcast": mishlei.buzzsprout.com
"Rambam Bekius" Podcast: rambambekius.buzzsprout.com
"The Tefilah Podcast": tefilah.buzzsprout.com
Old Blog: kolhaseridim.blogspot.com/
WhatsApp Content Hub (where I post all my content and announce my public classes): https://chat.whatsapp.com/GEB1EPIAarsELfHWuI2k0H
Amazon Wishlist: amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/Y72CSP86S24W?ref_=wl_sharel