In 1940, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, delivered one of his very first discourses, after settling on American shores. Now for the first time, HaChodesh HaZeh L`Chem, an exploration of the mystical meaning of the Hebrew months of Tishrei and Nissan, has been eloquently translated into English.

Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the New Year, which also marks the creation of the physical, natural universe, is celebrated in the month of Tishrei. In Nissan, we commemorate the Exodus from Egypt, a supernatural phenomenon by which the Jewish people transcended all constraints of the natural order and thus achieved their redemption.

Creation and Redemption illuminates this mystical dynamic, expressed in terms of contraction and expansion, as it exists within the world at large, within the cycles of the year, and within each individual as well.

Author: Rabbi Yosef Y. Schneersohn

Translated and annotated by: Rabbis Yosef Marcus and Ari Sollish