Reb Alexander Sender was a Chasid of the Alter Rebbe (Rabbi Shneur Zalman, founder of Chabad Chasidim), whose job sometimes required that he travel to other countries outside of Russia. When the Alter Rebbe once asked Reb Alexander Sender why he didn't engage in business in a particular town in Galicia (Poland), he took it to mean that he should go there, which he immediately did.
As this was the first time he had ever visited the region, Reb Alexander inquired as to where he could stay and take his meals. He was told that there was one particular place frequented by Jewish travelers where the food was prepared to the highest standards of kashrut, an inn run by the daughter of the late Rabbi of the town, who had been known for his piety and scholarship. After the Rabbi passed away, his young daughter, a girl of fine intellect and character like her father, was married off by the heads of the Jewish community to a local talmid chacham (Torah scholar). Their home was kosher to the highest and most strict specifications. Reb Alexander Sender decided to stay there.
When he sent a messenger to arrange for his accommodations, however, he learned that the young woman's husband was out of town and that she could therefore not allow him to stay. It was only after it was made clear that Reb Alexander Sender was accompanied by ten other people that she agreed to put him up.
That Friday night, Reb Alexander and his business associates, all of whom were also outstanding Chasidim of the Alter Rebbe, sat down to their festive Shabbos meal. The house fairly reverberated with their joyous singing of Chasidic melodies and zemirot (special songs for Shabbat). Suddenly, Reb Alexander heard the sound of weeping. Following the sound he found the young woman in the next room, unable to contain her tears. When he asked her why she was crying she told him that she had not experienced such a moving Shabbat table since her saintly father passed away. Hearing her guests' singing brought back such pleasant memories of her father, whom she still missed very much, she explained.
As they were talking she revealed something very close to heart: As a Jewish mother, she was terribly concerned about the fate of her 7-year-old son, for in Galicia, at that time, it was against the law to send children to cheder for religious instruction. She then inquired if the government was just as restrictive in Russia, where Reb Alexander Sender came from. "Not at all," he replied. "The Russian authorities do not interfere in such matters. It is permissible to provide the best Jewish education for one's children."
The woman implored Reb Alexander to take the boy back with him to Russia so he could learn Torah. "But what about your husband?" Reb Alexander asked. "Would he agree to send the child so far from home?" The woman assured Reb Alexander that the most important thing in the world to the two parents was that their son learn Torah in a yeshiva and grow up to be an educated Jew.
Reb Alexander Sender then understood why the Alter Rebbe had suggested he do business in that particular town. He wrote on his passport that the boy was his son, and so, 7-year-old Elchanan accompanied the group of businessmen back to Russia. Elchanan learned in yeshiva, distinguished himself in his studies and went on to establish a fine family of G-d-fearing Jews.
[This Elchanan was the father of Reb Peretz Chein, a well-known Lubavitcher Chasid in Russia.]
The Previous Rebbe, father of Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka Schneerson, whose yartzeit occurs this week on the 22nd of Shevat, once spoke about the self-sacrifice parents must have to provide the proper Jewish education for their children. On Purim in the year 5686 (1926) he said:
"We must continue to establish chadarim and yeshivot, for who knows which children will be affected and influenced? Rabbi Yekutiel, the father of Rabbeinu Gershom, brought his son to Tulitila in Morocco, which then became a center of Torah learning. In the same manner, the father of Peretz Chein, Reb Elchanan, fled his native Galicia to attend cheder in Russia. This came about because of his mother's self-sacrifice on his behalf, when she sent him away in order to learn Torah. Because of her actions he became the progenitor of this Torah-true family."
