Today is the Yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, wife of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Other than her steadfast support for the Rebbe as he initiated the greatest renaissance of Jewish life in centuries, precious little is known of her life.
The Rebbe channeled the grief of her passing in 1988 into unprecedented global Chabad growth. Hundreds of schools, synagogues, libraries and Mikvas were established in her memory, not to mention the tens of thousands of newborn baby girls named for her; many who serve as Chabad emissaries around the world today.
While her legacy looms large in the global Jewish world, I’d like to share a short but fascinating story about her early adulthood in Soviet Russia.
She was the daughter of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneerson, who assumed leadership of the Chabad movement in 1920, just as the Bolsheviks established their tyrannical anti-religious regime in Russia. Organized Jewish life was systematically and ruthlessly dismantled and the Previous Rebbe worked feverishly to keep Judaism alive, albeit underground, with great risk to his own life and the lives of all his students and followers who heeded his call to maintain Judaism in the country at all costs.
For years the communists sought to quash the Rebbe’s “religious anti-revolutionary rebellion” to no avail and in the summer of 1927 the soviet secret police barged into the Rebbe’s apartment in Leningrad after midnight to arrest him. The following is an excerpt from the Rebbe’s personal account of what happened that night:
They began their search in the room of my daughters, Chayah Mussia and Sheine, and asked them: “What party do you belong to?”
“We belong to our father’s party,” they replied; “we are nonpartisan daughters of Israel. We are fond of the old ways of our Patriarch Israel, and detest the new aspirations.”
Profound and powerful words spoken by young women staring evil in the eye, but their principled position was as old as Judaism itself.
In this week’s parsha we learn about the revelation at Sinai; when G-d gifted the Torah to the Jewish people and made them a nation for eternity. Here as an important description of Torah taught in Chassidus:
There are two types of laws: a) laws that create life, and b) laws created by life. Human laws are created by life so they vary from land to land according to circumstances. G-d’s Torah is a divine law that creates life. G‑d's Torah is the Torah of truth, the same in all places, at all times. Torah is eternal.
Today we are fortunate to live freely without religious persecution, but as Jews we are constantly confronted with the question “what party do you belong to?” Society always entices us to invest ourselves in new trends, philosophies and fads. While there may be much good in the various isms out there, we must never forget that our cherished heritage, the Torah which transcends time and space, is relevant here and now, as it was when our ancestors stood at Sinai 3,333 years ago. Everything else will be a footnote in history.
At Sinai we became members of the most ancient nonpartisan party known to humanity and it is our privilege and sacred duty to preserve this glorious heritage as we prepare the world for the arrival of Moshiach, when peace and tranquility will reign for all.