Chai [18] Elul, 12 days before Rosh Hashanah, is the birth date of two of the greatest Jewish luminaries of the Torah's inner dimensions in the last 300 years.

• The Baal Shem Tov, founder of the entire Chasidic movement, was born on this date in 1698
• The Baal Tanya, founder of the Chabad school of Chasidut, was born on this date in 1745
• It is also the date on which the Besh"t revealed the Chasidic movement, in 1734
• as well as the yahrzeit of the great Maharal of Prague in 1609 (direct paternal ancestor of the Baal Tanya)

This issue includes two articles of the Baal Shem Tov's teachings (1-2) plus, of course, a story (7);
two of the Baal Tanya's teachings (3-4) — both of which relate to the holiday season we are in;
and two about the weekly reading (5-6), where the opening theme is entering the Land of Israel.