She lit the candles at 8:20 pm... and that was her last Mitzvah and last Brochah. On May 21 (Shabbos Nasso) at 10 pm, in the presence of her son, her Soul left her body to end her long life filled with the light of her kindness, compassion, and love. She started from "צ" in תר"צ which means the year of 5690 [1930] from the Creation of the World, and ended with "צ" (numerical value of 90) as her full number of years - the Circle of Life returned to its beginning position...
The following perspective is related by her only son, Yehudah Leib Korf:
When our parents leave us alone in this world, we start feeling ourselves orphans. That suddenly happens to us regardless of our age, social status, and family composition.
By such moment, most of us are already parents, some - most lucky - are even grandparents, but when we lose our parents, we recognize that until the tragedy, there was a child "living" inside each of us. And the child "dies" with our parents' departure. That's why it's so difficult to endure.
Despite our parents' physical weakness, they protected us spiritually, and we subconsciously felt this protection but consciously did not appreciate it.
The last life lesson they teach us is so simple and powerful at the same time: everything physical they owned - they would leave to others. Only their good deeds will follow them.
So, we should remember that we're all not eternal, and someday everything we're so eagerly struggling to have today, we would also leave to others.
Hence, it's a good time to re-arrange our priorities and look around to find whom we can really help now while we are still given time, means, and power.
Short biography of Chaya Moussya:
1930: (5690, 13 Menachem Av, Parshas Va'Eschanan, on Thursday, when we study the Chumash portion between Asoroh HaDibros and Shma), Chaya Moussya was born to Yehudah Leib Lubarsky and Chana Shmorgun in Lipovetz, a Shtetl in the Vinnitsa County in Ukraine.
1935: Family moved to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Her father was in charge of finding companies that would provide raw materials and supplies for the production lines of his factory. This occupation was most close to the business entrepreneur. Fulfillment of his duties required a business acumen rather than some academic certifications.
1941: (June 22) The Nazis bombarded Kyiv before invading the Soviet Union (USSR, Russia).
1941: (June 25) Yehudah Leib, her father voluntarily joined the Soviet Army to fight the Nazis and protect his people rather than the government.
1941: (August) Chaya Moussya evacuated from Kyiv in a literary last train of freight cars while the Nazi planes kept bombing them...
1941: (September) Her mother Chana with two daughters arrived in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan.
1943: (March) Chaya Moussya got seriously sick and the family was suggested to change the climate to cure her life-threatening malaria. They moved to the Ural mountains to unite with my mother's cousins (one of them, Leonid Shmorgun - now living in S. F. Jewish Nursing Home - became our official sponsor when we came to the USA, directly to S. Francisco in 1991). She recovered and started working in a military factory by checking the quality of detonators for the projectiles.
1943: (December) The Soviet government notified the family that Chaya Moussya's father, Yehudah Leib ben Brana ben Ahron got lost in combat and his burial was unknown.
1946: Chaya Moussya returned to liberated Kyiv and graduated from High School with Silver Medal Certificate, for she had only one "B" (in Ukrainian language).
1947: Chaya Moussya worked in a Medical Equipment Supply company, studied and became a Certified Accountant for Industrial Field.
1949: Chaya Moussya managed to enroll at the Kyiv Medical University only by avoiding subjective admission exams run by anti-Semitic teachers... Such miracle made possible since she was awarded by Silver Medal in High school, but mostly due to the government's appreciation of her father's heroism that caused his life to be ended in the war.
1950: Chaya Moussya met my father Pesach ben Reizl ben Leib Korf in the University.
1955: Chaya Moussya graduated as a Pediatrician and was initially sent - that was the government practice of "pre-assigned employment" - to a close county in Ukraine, since her mother had a sickness bordering disability... Chaya Moussya decided to change her assignment for the "worse conditions" to join my father and work in the city of Karaganda that was a "miners' capital" of Kazakhstan.
1955: (December) My parents married. In a few years, I was born. Both of my parents demonstrated excellent professional skills and ethical attitudes to all their patients. In addition, they introduced many administrative and organizational improvements while creating a new unique Child Rehabilitation Facility (my father) and efficient Consulting and Guiding Service for young children and their parents from distant rural areas surrounding the city (my mother).
1967: Unfortunately, my parents got divorced, and my mother never attempted to get married again.
1968: My father returned back to Kyiv but couldn't get any position in numerous hospitals and clinics there - despite all of his friends' attempts to help him. His passport constantly revealed his Jewish identity that only caused resistance and hatred. Eventually, he got a job of a School Doctor that was well below his qualifications.
1974: That was the time when political activism was stagnated, and false reports and profanation replaced the achievements of actual results. At work my mother's staff "rebelled" against her... Some instigators joined the team and persuaded others to "reduce" their respect and honor for Chaya Moussya, because allegedly her leadership became "too strict", and her requirements for the staff's discipline, productivity, and honesty became "too excessive"...
As the consulting Pediatrician, she participated in the County Exams of children with mental problems. Thus, Chaya Moussya observed how some Child Psychiatrists prescribed young children strong medical substances that could destroy their cognitive development skills and transform them into handicaps for the rest of their lives. My mother saw a truly unethical approach but couldn't voice her opposition without holding a special certification in this area.
Chaya Moussya was never afraid to start a new path, and she always liked to learn. She tried to use her professional connections to attend some educational courses in different locations, including Moscow, where the field's leading experts taught the audience of experienced doctors rather than fresh students... It wasn't easy for her - the new specialty had different methods of cure, diagnostic techniques, and just an "ocean" of new information. Nevertheless, Chaya Moussya studied and studied, ignoring headaches and tiredness, as she did in her 20s when she combined her University studies by day with her work of attending nurse by night to support her sick mother. Eventually, it didn't take long until she got certified as a Child Psychiatrist.
When Chaya Moussya combined both Pediatric and Psychiatric skills in one head, she became a unique curer for young patients. A school for Children with Delayed Mental Development happened to be opened in her city - only Hashem knows why it was exactly there rather than in a capital city. Chaya Moussya joined the team as a School Doctor, which parallels my father's turn in his professional career. But this school was extraordinary: it had positions both for a Pediatrician and for a Child Psychiatrist.
It's worth mentioning that Adult Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry were different fields with only a little in common. The latter one was relatively new and appeared in Russia only in the 70s, "squeezing" through the "Iron Curtain" from the USA. Hence, in some way, Chaya Moussya was among pioneers applying a new way of rehabilitating children who used to be "pronounced" mentally disabled. She minimized the usage of psychotropic medicine and let children have more time to acquire skills that their peers from traditional schools excelled at a younger age.
1988: That was her last place of employment. Chaya Moussya retired there, and with my father's help, she and I could move back to Kyiv.
1991: Chaya Moussya and I left the USSR on the last Pan Am flight from Moscow. We made a short transfer to JFK. (We could see the Lubavitcher Rebbe that time, but to my big shame, I didn't know anything about Him specifically and about Yiddishkeit in general). Thus, we arrived in S. Francisco, CA where Chaya Moussya lived for almost 30 years. Chaya Moussya liked reading, loved poetry. She shared her discoveries with people, and many enjoyed her lectures about writers, poets, and secular masterpieces.
Chaya Moussya was far from Yiddishkeit because she didn't receive a Jewish education. No one should blame her parents for not sharing their Torah's Wisdom and Values. I think they did that deliberately to save the lives of their children and their own, since children unable to keep secrets, whereas such knowledge was proclaimed as "hostile and dangerous" for the ruling elite and their subordinated bureaucracy.
1998: I met Rabbi Ahron Hecht of RTC-Chabad, who was (and still is!) the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Shaliach in S. Francisco. Rabbi Hecht inspired me to start making my Teshuvah (changing my lifestyle by returning to the Torah Studies, accepting and absorbing Jewish Values, and observing Jewish Laws).
1999: My son Yaakov - Chaya Moussya's only grandchild - was born. She helped us raising him as much as she could. Chaya Moussya managed to build a better relationship with Yaakov than his own parents did because she could "lower" herself to his level of interests and needs in order to elevate him to her level of righteous values. I could never imagine how many new exciting ideas provoking Yaakov's creativity and inspiration my mother could bring in. Just watching their mutually happy and exciting activity made me "envy". They demonstrated so close and joyful friendship possible only among peers, that once I asked Yaakov (4 or 5 years old that time): "Whom he would consider being older - me, his father or Chaya Moussya, his grandmother?" He looked at me with sincere compassion and said: "Daddy, how can you ask such stupid questions? Definitely, you [my father] is older than Chaya Moussya [my grandmother]!"
2009: I moved to Sea Gate, NY to study in the Lubavitcher Yeshivah, and Chaya Moussya supported my presence there.
2017: I moved back to S. Francisco to help Chaya Moussya with multiple relocations during her building's remodeling. At that time, Chaya Moussya started observing Kosher and Shabbos. One step at a time: she kept adding a new Mitzvah to her lifestyle.
2021: (May 21, Shabbos of Parsha "Nasso") Chaya Moussya lit the Shabbos candles at 8:20 pm. And that was her last Mitzvah and last Brochah. Then, at 10 pm, in my presence, her Soul instantly left her body to end her long life filled with the light of her kindness, compassion, and love. The candles she lit that day kept burning for five more hours...
She started from "צ" as in תר"צ which means the year of 5690 [1930] from the Creation of the World, and ended with "צ" (numerical value of 90) as her full number of years - the Circle of Life returned to its beginning position.
