Before leaving Russia, Chaya Mushka was engaged to marry the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem
M. Schneerson.
The actual marriage was delayed until 1928, when, on the 14th day of Kislev,
their marriage was celebrated in Warsaw, Poland.
On the day preceding the wedding, thousands of Jews flocked to the railway
station in Warsaw to welcome her father and his family. During the course of
the day, a multitude of Chasidim, hailing from all of Poland, Lithuania, and
Russia, arrived in the capital.
At eight o'clock that evening, in the presence of the students of the Yeshiva
Tomchei T'mimim, her father celebrated the meal of the "chosson mohl."
In the middle of the meal her father delivered a ma'amar [chasidic discourse].
Midnight came and went, and the meal was still in progress. Her father expressed
his desire to rejoice with the Yeshiva students, and they at once formed a circle,
in the center of which he danced a good while.
The next day, the 14th of Kislev, at five in the evening, the "kabbalat
panim" began. Ushers were placed at the entrance of the Yeshiva, and only
guests with official invitations were allowed to enter. Thousands of people
surrounded the building and there simply wasn't enough room for them all.
Hundreds of miles away, in Russia, in Dnepropetrovsk, (Yekatrinoslav), another
wedding celebration was taking place. The Rebbe's parents, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak
and Rebbetzin Chana, unable to attend in person, organized a festive meal and
farbrengen in their own house, to which hundreds of local Jews flocked.
On the 14th of Kislev, 5714, twenty five years later, the Rebbe said to his
Chasidim: "It was this day that bound me to you, and you to me…"
