This beautiful and inspiring story of Rebbe and Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka I am sharing with you takes us back to the year of 5714 at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. It highlights their wonderful relationship: the Rebbe’s public devotion to the Jewish people and the Rebbetzin’s quiet, behind-the-scenes warmth and love for the Jewish people.
It was the night of Rosh Hashanah. Following the evening prayers, it was the Rebbe's custom to receive thousands of people for Yechidus to bless them for the New Year. People would line up down the block, waiting hours for a single minute of the Rebbe's time to ask for blessings for health, parnassah, and Shalom bayis, boruch HaShem.
On this particular year, the line was unprecedented. The Rebbe sat in his office, completely poured out his heart for each individual, and refused to rest. Hour after hour passed. Midnight came and went. The sun began to rise on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and the Rebbe was still receiving people.
Meanwhile, down the street at their home on President Street, Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka did not go to sleep. She never slept while the Rebbe was awake serving the community.
As dawn broke, the Rebbe finally finished with the last person. Exhausted and having stood on his feet for nearly twelve hours, he prepared to walk the few blocks home. But as he stepped outside 770, he saw someone patiently waiting, holding a thermos. It was the Rebbetzin.
Knowing how much energy the Rebbe gave to the thousands of people who came to him, she had walked through the quiet, early morning of the Crown Height streets herself. She didn't interrupt his work, nor did she ask him to hurry. She simply waited in the shadows with warm tea, wanting to make sure he had something to keeps him going before the daytime holiday prayers began.
The Meaning of the Apple and Honey
When they walked inside their home, the Rebbe sat down at the table. Before they made the holiday blessing over the traditional apples and honey, the Rebbe looked at the Rebbetzin and thanked her deeply for her sacrifice.
The Rebbetzin replied that the sweetness of her own New Year came from knowing that he was able to bring sweetness and hope to so many thousands of other families who were broken or searching.
An Enduring Legacy
This quiet, private moment expressed why Chabad Chassidim hold the memory of the Rebbe and Rebbetzin so dear during the High Holy Days. While the Rebbe was the public face of a global Jewish revival, it was the Rebbetzin’s devotion, humility, and quiet strength that supported him.
To this day, when families sit down to their Rosh Hashanah tables, many share stories of the remarkable Rebbe and Rebbetzin-remembering that true leadership and a "sweet year" are built not just through grand public gestures, but through quiet acts of love, patience, and looking out for one another in the dark.
And here ends the story with a message from the Rebbe : "The world is created anew."
The Rebbe taught that Rosh Hashanah is not merely the anniversary of the world's creation, it is the literal re-creation of the world.
According to Chassidic philosophy, the divine energy that endures existence completely withdraws on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. Then when we hear the blast of the shofar and accept the New Year, a completely new, unprecedented wave of divine energy enters the world.
The Rebbe emphasized this idea: If the entire universe is being born completely fresh right now, then you are being born fresh right now, too.
Shaking Off the Past
The Rebbe insisted that no matter what happened in the previous year -regardless of mistakes, failures, habits, or missed opportunities-those things belong to yesterday that no longer exists.
Yesterday's limitations do not dictate today:
You are not trapped by who you were five minutes ago. Because the world is brand new, you have completely new strengths, paths, and capabilities that did not exist yesterday.
The Rebbe taught that it is a mistake to spend Rosh Hashanah stuck down by guilt or sorrow over the past. Instead, the day demands optimism and joy. We crown HaShem with the belief that we can do better, look forward, and build a sweeter world starting this very second.
The Power of One Small Action
To make this teaching to use, the Rebbe referred to a famous ruling by Maimonides: A person must always see themselves, and the entire world, as equally balanced between good and bad.
The Rebbe taught that you should never underestimate your personal impact. One good deed, one kind word to your fellow Jew or tzedakah on the eve of Rosh Hashanah does not just change you spiritually, it physically tips the scale towards goodness.
A Rosh Hashanah Blessing from the Rebbe
In honor of this teaching, the Rebbe frequently offered a traditional, heartfelt blessing to everyone he met during the High Holy Days:
"May you be inscribed and sealed for a good and sweet year, a year of open, revealed goodness, full of health, prosperity, and spiritual growth for you and your family."
!כתיבה וחתימה טובה