The Comforting Letter From Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka

The Comforting Letter From Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka — Episode 129

Welcome to our weekly program, "The Inside Story of Chabad in America," through the Mindel archives. Last week we spoke about aliyah to Israel. Today I want to share with you something about the Rebbetzin.

I want to mention that there are letters here that the Rebbetzin wrote — I have quite a few letters here, maybe I'll share them with you in the future. We also have letters of the various Rebbetzins here. For example, there's a letter here that Rebbetzin Chana sent the day before her passing away, before Vov Tishrei. It says here she sent it to Mrs. Nemtzov — my wife's grandmother, the mother-in-law of Rabbi Mindel. She was very close to Mrs. Nemtzov, and she sent it that day, Friday. She passed away on Shabbos, and this is a letter that she wrote on Friday — unbelievable.

There's also a letter she wrote to somebody else. They used to write — but their handwriting, in older episodes, looked more or less the same. It was very hard to understand. For example, here I have a very interesting letter, let's say, from Rebbetzin [?] Dina Schneersohn — she used to write in a way that looked almost like circles. There's also a letter from Rebbetzin [?] (heard as "Tennessee") — that's what she used to write. And these are the writings of Rebbetzin Chana.

Anyway, maybe in another program I'll show you what it says here. I will share with you, later on, a letter — two pages — of the Rebbetzin that I just found, written in Russian. Maybe I'll read it; I had it read to a friend. But Mrs. Nemtzov's yahrzeit is coming up soon, and Rebbetzin Chana was close to her.

And talking about her writing — I want to mention a little about her neshama. I want to mention something about Mrs. Nemtzov. She passed away; she was about 115 years old. She is buried near Rebbetzin Chana — if you go to the Ohel you'll see that Rebbetzin Chana is on the left, and she is on the right, closer to the Ohel, on the same path. It says on the matzeivah that she lived around 110 years, and the reason it says that is because it was asked of the Rebbe — the Rebbetzin, excuse me — and the Rebbe said you shouldn't write 115, you should write around 110. I don't know why. So you'll see it says around 110, but she was actually 115.

She was a special woman, close to Rebbetzin Chana, so I just wanted to tell you what kind of person she was. She lived in Long Beach together with my in-laws. Before Pesach they had to go to New Haven to visit her mother and sister, and I took her to Borough Park to her nephew. When I took her there she was then probably 106 or 107 years old, I remember. It was before Pesach, and they had a table full of Pesachdig things — matzah, wine, gefilte fish — everything covered, the table was full. This was about twelve or one o'clock in the afternoon.

I sat her down at that table — it was a very, very long table — and I was standing next to her. All of a sudden she called her granddaughter, Miriam, who was about seventeen or eighteen years old. "Come here, Miriam, I want to ask you something — over there at the end of the table, what is this?" So Miriam said, "This is fish for Pesach." A few minutes later she asked Miriam again, "What is this?" pointing to the same thing. Miriam said, "Is this what you're pointing to? Yes, this is fish." A third time, again, "What is this?" "This is fish." So Miriam took the jar of gefilte fish and said, "Bubby, you know what, I'll bring it to you, I'll show it to you so you can see it closer." She takes the fish, gives it a look — it doesn't say "for Pesach use." I guess they bought regular fish for Pesach and the store made a mistake, or there was a mix-up between the kosher-for-Pesach and the regular kosher [unclear]. So she had noticed it doesn't say "for Pesach use," though I couldn't see it either — it was in very small words. But here we see what kind of woman Mrs. Nemtzov was. She was mamish — she was very close with the Rebbetzin.

So, speaking about the Rebbetzin — the last letter before Vov Tishrei was written to Mrs. Nemtzov. Here I want to read to you a letter from the Rebbetzin that I found, written in Russian. It took me a long time until I finally asked somebody to read it for me — it's written in Russian. There are certain private things in it which I'm not going to read, but what I could read, I'm going to read — how she felt, how she wrote to a friend. Dear — let's say "Sora," the name was not Sora, but we'll call her Sora:

"I read your broken and distressed letter — it pains me very much. I don't want to postpone writing to you any longer. I think of you often, and you are always in my thoughts, but writing is more personal. And now, about this person we both know — I don't want to mention it today, because people know what it is — there is nothing to be done to help, especially given your attitude toward this person. You would undoubtedly be upset if I brought it up in a letter.

"She took a turn for the worse, and then she also fell and broke her left arm. She didn't want to go to the hospital, and when her husband returned home from work, we made sure to take her immediately to the doctor, and the doctor put a cast on her" — these are people that they were friendly with. "She assures me that she feels good, but the way she looks is far from confirming it. She walks around, as always, thank God, and consoles herself with the fact that it did not happen to her right hand but to her left hand" — so she was very happy because she could still use her right hand. "Tonight I was in touch with her — she told me she will write to you from this and that place when she gets back, but the whole trip turned out to be quite unfortunate. She will probably write to you about it. As you know her, she always treats her ailments lightly.

"Dear Sora, since I sent you [word about saying] Tehillim, I had an unpleasant feeling that I didn't write to you in more detail. I hope you are not upset — this weighs on me very much. Besides, I really want to know how you are living; I want to receive good news from you. You always try, as much as you can, to write about the pleasant side of life, but you should know that even the good has its own shadow side."

This is more or less word for word: "We are interested in everything about you, and when there is no news for a long time, it worries me. My dear, you know that in our family you are very much loved and appreciated, but always at a moment when you need bigger and stronger and more confident support, it's even more important to try to find the strength — for the sake of your son. Don't break your health, don't destroy your nerves — your son needs you, he needs a healthy mother. It is very important in life that this awareness alone should make you remember that your strength and healthy spirit are needed in your life.

"I was in the city today to buy some things for my niece in England."

As we spoke last week — Leibel, the Rebbe's brother, had a daughter — and whenever she bought things for her, a friend flying to England would offer to take everything that she bought. Do you remember somebody who became [unclear] — she goes into it very much, which I mentioned.

This is a handwritten letter from the Rebbetzin, and there are more letters from the Rebbetzins, but we have no time today. So b'ezras Hashem, next week we will continue our weekly program.