This year, Thursday, February 20th, corresponding to the Hebrew date of Chof Beis Shevat, marks 37 years since the passing of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, daughter of the previous Rebbe and wife of our Rebbe.
When the famous Rabbi Akiva returned from the great yeshiva in Jerusalem to his humble home after 24 years of intense and unceasing Torah study, he brought with him his 22,000 students. When his wife Rachel approached him through the crowd, Rabbi Akiva announced “All that I have, and all that you have, we owe to her.” These words of Rabbi Akiva are recorded in the Talmud (Ketubot 63a).
In another Talmudic Tractate (Yevamot 62b) it says that Rabbi Akiva’s disciples saved the Torah at that time.
In a beautiful letter from the Rebbe to the Lubavitch Women’s Organization for one of their annual conventions, the Rebbe explains that these two Talmudic teachings are interconnected. “This means that the entire edifice of the Oral Torah, the very basis of the existence of our Jewish people and its way of life, is ultimately to be credited to a Jewish woman,” the Rebbe writes there.
This Thursday, the 22nd of Shevat, we commemorate the yahrzeit of a most unique, righteous Jewish woman, the Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson.
Upon the passing of her father, the Previous Rebbe, the Rebbetzin strongly encouraged the Rebbe to assume the mantle of leadership. This entailed tremendous self-sacrifice and unimaginable devotion on the part of the Rebbetzin. Although we cannot fully understand just how much of a sacrifice it was, she certainly understood. For, during a U.S. court case concerning the ownership of the library of the Previous Rebbe, it was the Rebbetzin’s decisive statement that “the library belongs to the Chasidim because my father belonged to the Chasidim” which helped the Lubavitch movement win the case so that the stolen books were returned to “770.”
Thus, when the Rebbetzin encouraged the Rebbe to accept the entreaties of the tens of thousands of Chasidim world-wide who were requesting that he become Rebbe, she knew that from that time forth the Rebbe would belong to the Chasidim and to world Jewry at large.
We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Rebbetzin.
In Memory of Rabbi Shmuel M. Butman, Director of the Lubavitch Youth Organization and Founder of the L'chaim Publication.
