Monday, Chof Beis Shevat, will be the 35th yahrzeit of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson. Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was born on Shabbos, 25 Adar in 1901. She was the second of three daughters of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok.
When she was born, her grandfather, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber, the Rebbe Rashab, was traveling abroad, and he telegraphed her father saying, “Mazal tov on the birth of your daughter … if she has not yet been named, she should be called Chaya Mushka.” This was the name of the Rebbetzin of the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Tzemach Tzedek.
From her earliest years, the Rebbetzin absorbed the purity and holiness that surrounded her, both in the house of her grandfather and that of her father.
In the autumn of 1915, during World War I, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka and her family left the town of Lubavitch and settled in Rostov.
Her early twenties saw the intensification of the Communist war against the Jewish soul and her father’s heroic struggle to sustain Yiddishkeit among Jews in the Soviet Union.
Cognizant of her wisdom and strength, her father involved her in much of his work. In Rostov at that time there was an underground Litvish yeshiva, “Beis Yosef” of Navaradok. It was a time of hunger, and the talmidim of the Navaradok Yeshiva were starving. The Rebbe Rashab and his son, the previous Rebbe, worried about how to supply food for the yeshiva.
The problem was a double one: How to get the food in this time of hunger, something that was achieved with great mesirus nefesh, and the problem of getting the food over to the Navarodok Yeshiva without attracting government attention. This too required great mesirus nefesh.
The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was chosen for this task. She secretly transported the food to the Navaradok Yeshiva on a daily basis. The Rebbetzin was given this assignment with the knowledge that, with her discerning judgment, she could be relied upon.
Life became increasingly dangerous for the Jews of Rostov, and in the spring of 1924 the previous Rebbe and his family moved to Leningrad.
In a recently discovered document dated December 4, 1924, her father, the previous Rebbe, wrote:
I hereby empower citizen Chaya Moussia Schneersohn, residing at Machovaya Street 12/22, apartment 10, to receive monies on my behalf or documents that are addressed to me, in all forms, from the government bank and all of its branches and offices, and from other banks, government or communal, or from other organizations or private persons or by telegraph.”
Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was 23 years old at the time.
The persecution was relentless, and in 1927 the notorious Communist police came to arrest her father, the previous Rebbe, in their Leningrad home. Maintaining her composure, she brilliantly managed to alert the Rebbe (her husband-to-be) who was already standing outside the house, by calling out: “Schneerson, we have guests.” Understanding her message, the Rebbe was quickly able to notify others to take necessary precautions and to begin an international campaign for the Rebbe’s release.
Following his arrest and imprisonment in Leningrad, the previous Rebbe was exiled to Kostroma. Upon his request, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was one of only three people who were allowed to join him on the journey. On the 12th of Tammuz, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was the bearer of good news when she notified her family, by telephone from Kostroma to Leningrad, of her father’s release.
Chassidim tell that years later the Rebbetzin very strongly encouraged her husband, the Rebbe, to accept the nesius, leadership, of Chabad so that “the work of my father should not be lost.”
The Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka was selfless. Her life was totally dedicated to the Rebbe. The Rebbetzin was once asked if she has children. The Rebbetzin responded, “My husband and I have many children all over the world.”
