Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #05b: Addendum - Fat Guys in the Woods
This was an addendum I wrote to the last Facebook post about Tishah b'Av with Rabbi Moskowitz. It's about one of the most absurd, surreal, hysterical moments I've experienced on any Tishah b'Av.
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 3, 2022, during his shivah.
Rabbi Moskowitz Memory #05b: Addendum - Fat Guys in the Woods
Since my last post was about Tishah b'Av and laughter, I just had to write a short addendum with an anecdote from Tishah b'Av 2015 that I couldn't quite work into the post. If you haven't read the main post yet, it might provide some context for this one. It's quite possible that this will not resonate with anyone aside from me and the people who were there — and someone even told me not to share this — but I feel I must write it to preserve the memory.
My brother, Jonny, posted this photo on Facebook with the following caption:
"Like that show! Fat Guys in the Woods!"
"What...?"
"Let's see if it's on."
"Wait... there's a show actually called--?"
"IT'S ON!!"
Perfect photo. Perfect caption. Let me explain as much as I can reconstruct.
We had been learning for 4-5 hours. In fact, thanks to Google, I know exactly when this happened: July 26, 2015 at 6:47pm Pacific Time. Somehow (and I can't for the life of me remember how, and if anyone who was there remembers, please let me know!) Rabbi Moskowitz mentioned a TV show called, "Fat Guys in the Woods."
We had no idea what he was talking about. I don't even know if we knew that Rabbi Moskowitz watched TV. But the thing that filled us with doubt was the name of the show. Rabbi Moskowitz wasn't the most exact person when it came to recalling details and precise names. We figured he was talking about the show "Survivor" and just happened to have once caught an episode which involved a fat guy. We suggested this theory to him, and he said, "No, there's really a show called 'Fat Guys in the Woods' where they take a bunch of fat guys and throw them in the woods to see if they can survive."
Somehow, we still didn't believe him. It just didn't sound like a real show! He said, "Wait a minute, what time is it?" "It's 6:45pm." "It might be on!" Rabbi Moskowitz turns on the TV, flips to THE WEATHER CHANNEL (of all places), and exclaims, "IT'S ON, IT'S ON!!" Sure enough, there it was: Fat Guys in the Woods, in all of its Weather Channel glory!
We watched in disbelief (amid laughter at the absurdity of the moment) as Rabbi Moskowitz explained to us how the show worked. I actually caught a minute of this on video (see below), and although there isn't much on the video except for our laughter, I'm glad I preserved it. Really brings back memories. "Every show is a different situation,” Rabbi Moskowitz explained. “Different fat guys, different situation."
Let me restate the fact that I have no idea how we got onto this topic from our Tishah b'Av learning. I asked one of my friends who was there when it happened, and he replied: "No idea whatsoever. I suspect it had something to do with working your way out of difficult situations, but who knows."
I wish I had a "moral of the story" to conclude with here, but I don't. It's just another happy (albeit incongruous) Tishah b'Av memory with Rabbi Moskowitz which I'll treasure along with all the others.
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.
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