1988: Passing of the Rebbetzin

From The Living Torah, The Rebbetiz’s Funeral

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

She had felt ill the night before 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.

An erudite and wise woman, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka carried the mantle of her exalted position in a most humble and unpretentious fashion. Though she was the wife of a leader revered by hundreds of thousands, almost nothing was known about her until after her passing, when those who knew her felt that they could tell of her life and personality without violating her jealously guarded privacy.

In a farewell fit for a queen, a procession fifteen thousand strong led by an official police motorcade accompanied her to the Chabad 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.

Childhood, marriage, work, religion, illness—things that one thinks one knows exactly what they mean—were given new meaning in the Rebbe’s teachings. He did the same with the concepts of death and mourning.

The Rebbe noted that Torah law prescribes set periods for mourning the passing of a close relative. A certain set of mourning practices are mandated for the first day; other laws apply to the first three days, seven days, month and year. But isn’t “mourning” a feeling rather than an act? How, then, asked the Rebbe, can a person be instructed to mourn? Or to reduce the intensity of his mourning when a certain mandated “mourning period” ends?

Death, explained the Rebbe, is a phenomenon so devastating to our sense of self that we cannot deal with it with any of the ordinary tools of life. Only our submission to the supra-rational law of G-d can empower us to contain our mourning and not allow it to overwhelm our lives.

As for the concept of death itself, the Rebbe saw death not as the end of life, but as the beginning of new, loftier and a greater form of life. For the soul lives on. Indeed, when the soul is freed from the limits of the physical condition, it can express its spirituality and purity unobscured by the body.

Also: if we define life not merely as existence but as progression and achievement, a person can live beyond the point that the soul and body are parted. If those in the land of the living are spurred by his passing to do positive, constructive and G-dly deeds, than the death itself becomes a form of life.

Finally, a basic tenet of the Jewish faith is the belief that, in the age of Moshiach, those who have died will be restored to eternal life. Thus death is but a temporary hiatus before a renewed, and far greater, phase of life. Indeed, the Talmud compares death to sleep, implying that, like sleep, it is a “descent for the sake of ascent” — a time of foment and preparation for a greater, more energized tomorrow.

Road Work

Note: Chessed Halberstam worked in the employ of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneersohn, wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, for eighteen years — from 1970 until the Rebbetzin’s passing in 1988 — performing household chores and serving as the Rebbetzin’s driver.

The Rebbe requested that I try to see to it that the Rebbetzin gets out of the house every day for fresh air. Usually we would drive out to a park in Long Island. In the years that my son, Ari (may G-d avenge his blood1), was a young child, we would often drive by his school on Ocean Parkway to take him along; the Rebbetzin enjoyed playing with him, pushing him on the swings in the park playground, etc.

One day, as we neared the park, we found our regular route closed off due to road work, and were forced to proceed instead on a parallel street. As we drove along that street, we heard the sound of a woman screaming in Russian. When I stopped at the next traffic light, the Rebbetzin turned to me and said: “I heard a woman screaming; can you go back and see what that was about?”

We drove back to the beginning of the street. There we saw a woman standing on the curb and weeping, while near her workers were carrying furniture and household items from a house and loading them on to a truck belonging to the county marshal. At the Rebbetzin’s request, I parked behind the marshal’s truck and went to learn the details of what was going on. The marshal explained that the woman had not paid her rent for many months and was now being evicted from her home.

When I reported back to the Rebbetzin, she asked me to go back and inquire from the marshal how much the woman owed, and if he would accept a personal check; she also asked that I should not say anything to the family being evicted. At this point, I still did not realize where all this was leading, but I fulfilled the Rebbetzin’s request. The sum that the family owed was approximately $6,700. The marshal said that he had no problem accepting a personal check, as long as he confirms with the bank that the check is covered; he also said that if he received the payment, his men would carry everything back into the house. When I informed the Rebbitzin of the details, she took out her checkbook and, to my amazement, wrote out a check for the full amount, and asked me to give it to the marshal.

The marshal made a phone call to the bank, and then instructed his workers to take everything back into the house. The Rebbitzin immediately urged me to quickly drive away, before the woman realized what had transpired.

I was completely amazed at what I had seen and later, when we were in the park, I could not contain myself and asked the Rebbetzin what had prompted her to give such a large sum to a total stranger?

“Do you really want to know?” asked the Rebbetzin.

“Yes, I do,” I replied.

“Then I’ll tell you,” she said. “Once, when I was a young girl, my father2 took me for a walk in the park. He sat me down on a bench and started to tell me about the idea of hashgachah peratit (‘specific divine providence’).3 Every time — said father — when something causes us to deviate from our normal routine, there is a divinely ordained reason for this; every time we see something unusual, there is a purpose in why we’ve been shown this sight.

”Today,“ continued the Rebbetzin, ”when I saw the ‘Detour’ sign instructing us to deviate from our regular route, I remembered my father’s words and immediately thought to myself: Every day we drive by this street; suddenly, the street’s closed off and we’re sent to a different street. What is the purpose of this? How is this connected to me? Then I heard the sound of a woman crying and screaming. I realized that we have been sent along this route for a purpose.“

FOOTNOTES
1. Ari Halberstyam was murdered by an Arab terrorist in 1994, in the infamous Brooklyn Bridge shooting.
2. The sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. (1880-1950)
3. Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), founder of Chassidism, taught that, ”Everything that occurs, and every detail thereof, is by Divine providence; if a leaf is turned over by a breeze, it is only because this has been specifically ordained by G-d to serve a specific function within the purpose of creation.“ Thus, ”Every single thing that a person sees or hears, is an instruction to him in his conduct in the service of G-d.”