A Mother’s Midnight Sacrifice: The Inspiring Story Behind Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg’s Rise to Greatness

The outbreak of World War I placed Yosefa Scheinberg in an especially painful and difficult situation. She remained alone at home, for her husband, Rabbi Yaakov Yitzchak, who was wanted by the Polish army for evading conscription, and had fled to the United States out of fear of severe punishment. Yosefa was left to face the terror of war on her own while struggling to provide for herself and her two sons, Avraham Natan and Chaim Pinchas, who would later become the great sage Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg.

Yet despite the heavy burden of survival, another concern weighed even more heavily on her heart. Her burning love for Torah filled her thoughts constantly. “How will I ensure that my dear son Chaim Pinchas grows properly? He goes each day to a teacher who teaches him Torah, but how will I know if he is truly progressing? I must see to it that he becomes a Torah scholar, and my husband is not here.”

An idea began to form in her mind. She would find a learned Jew who could study privately with her son and carefully guide his development. But how could she possibly afford such a tutor? Even basic sustenance was a struggle in those years of war and poverty.

The thought would not leave her. Suddenly, a plan came to her: because milk in the town had become scarce due to the war, she would locate a family that owned a cow, purchase several containers of milk each day, sell them in town, and use the small profit to pay for a private teacher who would nurture her son’s growth in Torah.

A Dangerous Mission for the Sake of Torah

How could such a plan be carried out during wartime, when simply walking the streets could be dangerous? Yet Yosefa did not give up. She heard that in a nearby village there was a family that owned a milking cow. The family was not Jewish, which meant that beyond transporting the milk, she herself would need to walk each night through a frightening and risky route to supervise the milking and ensure that the milk would be permitted, avoiding any concern of non-Jewish milk.

And so she did.

In the middle of the night she would walk to the nearby village and stand present during the milking. Only in the early hours of the morning, after a sleepless night, would she return to Ostrova carrying heavy containers of milk. There she would sell them and earn the small daily coins that, by the end of the month, accumulated into enough money to hire a private tutor who would carefully guide her son so that he could grow into a true Torah scholar.

A Heart That Cared for Every Student of Torah

Her devotion to Torah did not end there. Family members later recounted that whenever she returned to town, she would immediately send some of the milk to the study hall so that those immersed in Torah could quench their thirst. Even at the end of the day, if milk remained, she would not keep it for the next day’s sales. Instead, she would warm it and send it to the Beit Midrash so that the scholars could continue their learning with renewed strength.

During the harsh Polish winters, she would also send blankets from her own home to those studying in the Beit Midrash, knowing that some of them slept on benches without even a thin covering to protect them from the cold.

A Son’s Lifelong Gratitude

These moving stories, recorded in the book Megadalto U’Meromemto, were often recounted with deep emotion by the great sage Rabbi Chaim Pinchas Scheinberg himself. He would describe the extraordinary self sacrifice and love of Torah that Jewish women of earlier generations possessed as they raised sons who would become Torah scholars.

Above all, however, he would express his profound sense of gratitude toward his mother, whose devotion, courage, and unwavering faith shaped the course of his life.