Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #03: A Rebbi of Students He Never Met

Here's another Facebook post I wrote two years ago during the week of shivah for Rabbi Moskowitz. It includes an excerpt from the draft of my eulogy which didn't make the final cut.

Jun 04, 2024

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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.

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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 June 1, 2022, during the week of shivah.

No photo description available. — not sure who these guys are, but I’m guessing this was taken during one of his early years of teaching high school

Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #03: A Rebbi of Students He Never Met

One of the things that has helped me tremendously throughout my grieving process is the number of my own talmidim (students) who have reached out to me to share how Rabbi Moskowitz has impacted their lives, despite never having met him. Here are a few examples of messages I've received:

"Baruch Dayan Haemes. I know how much he influenced you and how much he meant in your life. And, because of that, he’s influenced mine and SO many others as well - for that I’ll be forever grateful."
"I heard [the news] about Rabbi Moskowitz. I feel as though I have lost my grand-rebbe in many ways. Thank you for spreading so much of his Torah to me."
"Hi, I hope you’re doing well, relatively of course. I just wanted to send my condolences for the death of Rabbi Moskowitz. While I never met him personally, I’m absolutely certain his Torah lives in me based on the frequency I’ve heard you simply say his name. Even when not directly quoting him, his name was frequently in your mouth and it was apparent how profoundly he impacted you and what he meant to you. And through you, I feel a loss at his death as well. Baruch Dayan HaEmes."

(Regarding the line "based on the frequency I've heard you simply say his name": in this year's YBT Purim video, there were intermittent "Rabbi Schneeweiss scenes" in which my talmidim made lighthearted fun of my many idiosyncrasies. In one of these scenes, the Rabbi Schneeweiss character quotes Rabbi Moskowitz in every sentence. This, of course, is an exaggeration, but a telling one. And one for which it was an honor to be teased.)

One of the most beautiful examples of this type of condolence message was an email I received yesterday morning from a long-time student of mine who never learned under Rabbi Moskowitz herself, but whose father and grandfather both had the privilege of learning Torah from him directly:

ברוך דיין האמת
I am so sorry to hear of the passing of Rabbi Moskowitz zt”l. I can’t even begin to imagine the deep and true pain from losing a Rav and friend, as you described beautifully, from who you personally learnt and gained so so much.
Although I have never had the privilege to really meet Rabbi Moskowitz, a few descriptions jumped out to me from the Hespadim (eulogies):
His deep insights into Torah and reality, taken to action through immense consideration and thought. His intellectual honesty to truly encourage and consider every single question. The Happiness and excitement with which he discussed and taught ideas and Torah, and lived the rest of his life.
I have never had the privilege to really meet Rabbi Moskowitz, yet the amount of Torah which he taught me is tremendous.
I have learned so much from hearing people talk about him. But what I really recognized from the Levaya is how much more I have truly learnt from Rabbi Moskowitz.
The Hespadim showed me how the most precious lessons and ideas which I gained from your classes, which have helped shaped me into who I am, seem to have stemmed from him.
I realized that through you as a link in the chain of the mesorah, he was my Rebbi too.
המקום ינחם אתך בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

Similarly, there have been so many people on Facebook who have never learned directly from Rabbi Moskowitz, but have been influenced by his teachings and personality solely through their interactions with his students - both those who became teachers, and those who didn't.

As we drove from the funeral service to the cemetery, one of my close friends remarked, "I'm sure there are people who bagged Rabbi Moskowitz's groceries who were made better by him, or who sensed that this was someone unique and couldn't even explain why."

The eulogy I delivered focused on the final interaction between Eliyahu ha'Navi, and his prophetic disciple, Elisha. The original draft was much longer and commented on many other parallels to Rabbi Moskowitz throughout that entire episode. I'd like to share one of those parallels here.

As Eliyahu and Elisha traveled from town to town en route to the location of Eliyahu's point of departure, they encounter groups of "bnei ha'neviim" (prophets-in-training) who received the nevuah (prophecy) that Eliyahu would be taken away that very day. The Abravanel is bothered by this. Why did all these other "random" people merit to receive the prophecy about Eliyahu's upcoming death? For what purpose was this prophecy revealed to them if they had no connection to Eliyahu himself?

The Abravanel answers with an analogy. A ray of sunlight provides a certain amount of illumination. However, if that ray of sunlight strikes a highly polished reflective metal surface, it can, by reflection, spread that light farther and wider than it would have otherwise. So too, if a navi (prophet) who is highly perfected in his intellect and character traits, receives nevuah, then his own perfection will cause others who are nearby to receive "spill-over nevuah" and receive prophecies that they, on their own merit, would not have otherwise been able to receive.

I don't know enough about prophecy to understand what the Abravanel is talking about, but I am confident that something of this nature happened in the case of Rabbi Moskowitz. His Torah and his middos (character traits) were as contagious as his laughter, spreading to everyone he came in contact with. Even a single interaction with him could impart a perfection which might last a lifetime. So many people over the past few days have told me, "I only ever heard ONE class from Rabbi Moskowitz, but I remember this one idea ..." They'd tell me the idea in detail and conclude with something along the lines of "and I still think about that idea every time I encounter that subject/situation/text." People tend to reserve the term "luminary" for those who are geniuses in their areas of expertise. Rabbi Moskowitz was not a genius, but he was a luminary in that his light was so bright that it caused others to light up as well.

And the influence of Rabbi Moskowitz was not just in the ideas he taught, but in his entire persona. Part of it was the fact that he was sameach b'chelko (content with his lot), as Rabbi Chait spoke about in his eulogy. Rabbi Moskowitz simply radiated simchas ha'chayim (joy of life), despite his somewhat coarse exterior. Part of it was his absolute lack of pretension, as Rabbi Fox spoke about in his eulogy. In Mrs. Moskowitz's eulogy, she told us about how Rabbi Moskowitz's two final aides called him "papa" and how he told them that he loved them in return. It was impossible to meet him and not love him.

Rabbi Moskowitz defined the term "chein" (grace) in Mishlei as "the absence of negative emotions which cause friction in interpersonal relationships." Rabbi Moskowitz had this type of "chein," which allowed all who interacted with him to instantly feel accepted and valued as a human being, without them even realizing that was happening ... even when he called you a moron or demolished the answers and ideas you were so proud to propose in class.

And that's why so many of my talmidim feel like they met and learned from a man they had never laid eyes on. He so embodied the ideas and values by which he held that it was impossible for the Torah he transmitted not to be imprinted with his distinctive signature. There are certain ideas you can hear in the name of a random rabbi, and if you swap out the name for another one, then nobody could tell the difference. There are other ideas that you might recall learning, but you can't recall where or from whom you learned them. But it is impossible to forget that an idea you learned came from Rabbi Moskowitz. The Torah he taught truly was "toraso" - his Torah. That is the quality that allowed my students to meet him, and will enable future generations to continue meeting him long after his passing.

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.

The Rabbi Schneeweiss Substack

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