The birthdays of both the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Chassidic movement, and Rabbi Shneur Zalman, the Baal HaTanya, fall on the 18th of Elul, a holiday for many Chasidim.
The word spread quickly. Almost instantaneously, melancholy gloom replaced the exuberant rejoicing. The singing stopped, the dancers froze; the mother's...