Today: The Rebbetzin’s Yahrtzeit

On Wednesday, February 10, 1988 (Shevat 22, 5748) the Rebbe’s wife of 59 years, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, passed away after a brief illness.

An erudite and wise woman, she carried the mantle of her revered position in a humble and unpretentious fashion.

Born in Babinovitch, near the Russian city of Lubavitch, she lived in Lubavitch until the autumn of 1915 when due to World War I, she and her family were forced to flee to Rostov. In 1920, on the passing of her grandfather, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, her father became the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch.

In the Spring of 1924, due to increasing dangers for the Jews in Rostov she and her family moved to Leningrad. In the autumn of 1927 her father was imprisoned in 1927 for disseminating Torah observance, and she participated in efforts to have him released that were ultimately successful. After his release, the Schneersohn family left the Soviet Union and moved to Riga, Latvia.

In 1928 she married Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson in Warsaw, and they went to live in Berlin, Germany, where he studied in the local University. After the Nazis came to power in 1933 they fled to Paris, France. When the Nazis invaded France in 1941 they managed to escape from France on the Serpa Pinto, which was the last boat to cross the Atlantic ocean before the U-boat blockade began.

They settled in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, where many Lubavitcher Hasidim had already settled.

After her father passed away in 1950, it was thanks to persistent urging that the Rebbe agreed to formally assume leadership of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in 1951 as the 7th Rebbe.

Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka had no children, however once, when a child visiting her house asked her, “where are your children?” she answered, “the Chassidim are my children.”

Gracious and courteous to everyone, she saw her role as wholly subordinate to her husband’s mission of Jewish leadership. In public, she always referred to him as “the Rebbe.”

When she relayed an answer from him to those seeking his guidance, she always repeated his exact wording and made sure that the listener knew it, invariably refusing either to interpret or elaborate upon his advice. She resisted efforts among the Lubavitchers to bestow public honors on her.

During the court case held against the Rebbe over ownership of the Agudas Chassidie Chabad Library, the Rebbetzin testified for the federal court, saying, “My father, my husband, along with all his books, belong to the chassidim.”

The night before her passing, she felt ill and was brought to the hospital, where she requested a glass of water. After reciting the blessing “Blessed are You, G-d… by whose word all things come into being,” she returned her soul to her Maker.

In a farewell fit for a queen, thousands upon thousands led by an official police motorcade accompanied her to the Old Montefiore Cemetery in Queens, New York. There she was interred near her father, the previous Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson.

On the very day of her burial, the Rebbe established a charity fund in her name, which continues to this day to serve a variety women’s social and educational purposes.

In the days and months following her passing, the Rebbe spoke frequently on the theme, “And the living shall take to heart”—how the passing of a person close to oneself should prompt one to positive action, in the form of lessons derived from that person’s life and deeds undertaken to perpetuate his or her memory.

After her passing, when the Rebbe was asked about the extent of the Rebbetzin’s greatness, he remarked, “Only Hashem knows.”

VIDEO:
Brief biography of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushke Schneerson

DOWNLOAD:
+ Mishnayos in the Rebbetzin’s memory