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This Jewish Inspiration Podcast is dedicated to learning, understanding and enhancing our relationship with Hashem by working on improving our G-d given soul traits and aspiring to reflect His holy name each and every day. The goal is for each listener to hear something inspirational with each episode that will enhance their life.
You're listening to Rabbi Aryeh Wolbe, Director of TORCH, the Torah Outreach Resource Center of Houston. This is the Jewish Inspiration Podcast.
All right, welcome back everybody to the Jewish Inspiration Podcast. This is a short and sweet inspiration segment where we're going to talk about the Hebrew month of Tammuz. Today is Rosh Chodesh. Today is the first day of the month of Tammuz. Tammuz is the fourth month in the Jewish calendar and the tenth month since Rosh Hashanah and usually falls in the June-July time of the Gregorian calendar.
The month name is Tammuz, which means heating. Rashi explains that Tammuz means heating like a glowing furnace, an appropriate name for the month which occurs at the height of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and those of you in Houston, we know that today is another record-breaking heat wave and roughly coinciding with July, Tammuz is also a name of an idol. In Ezekiel chapter 8 verse 18 tells us that Hashem showed him a troubling vision of women in the Holy Temple sitting,
making the Tammuz cry, making the Tammuz weep, and Rashi explains there that Tammuz was an idol that could be heated from the inside. Its eyes were made of soft lead and would melt from the heat and appear like it was weeping. When this happened, the people claimed that it was begging for an offering, for another idolatrous offering. There are 29 days in the month of Tammuz and the Zodiac of Tammuz is cancer or the crab, the Sartan in Hebrew.
Cancer is a crab which grows in water. The Midrash links this to Moshe who was hidden in the water by his mother. For this reason Hashem deferred his final destruction of the Temple until the following month of Av when Moshe's protection was no longer dominant in the month. The Zohar tells us that the first three months Nisan, Iyar, Sivan are associated with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Tammuz and Av this month and next month, the fourth and fifth months, were taken by Jacob's evil brother, his evil twin, Asaph.
Not surprisingly, both holy temples were destroyed during this time, one by the Romans, ears, two, Asaph. Now some of the events that go on in this month. So the biggest event that happens in this month which has many national tragedies, as the Talmud, as the Mishnah in Tractate Ta'anit says, the Mishnah mentions four. I think we can list more than four. Number one is the 17th of Tammuz is a fast day from sunrise till stars out in
remembrance of, number one, the golden calf was created and worshipped on the 17th of Tammuz, which was only 40 days after the Jewish people had the revelation of Mount Sinai. Moshe broke the first set of tablets. The offerings of King Salmon were discontinued on this day. During the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem, the Jews were forced to cease offering daily sacrifice due to the lack of sheep. The Roman general, Apostomus, burned the Torah and placed an idol in the second temple. The walls of Jerusalem were breached by the Romans in
69 CE. After a lengthy siege. Also, the 17th of Tammuz, aside for being a fast day, ushers in the beginning of the three weeks, also called Bein Hametzarim, between the straits during which joy is tempered and spiritual sensitivity is heightened. As we recall the tragedies of the past, we follow similar customs to the Omer, such as refraining from weddings and haircuts. The three weeks culminate with Tisha B'Av, the ninth of Av, which is a very sad day of
fasting and mourning the destruction of both temples. As we anticipate its rebuilding, this is an especially opportune time to study the intricate details of the Holy Temple and the laws of proper speech. Some of the things to know about this month is that the third day of Tammuz was a very special day in which Joshua stopped the sun. On the third day of Tammuz, something happened that broke all the rules of nature. Joshua was leading the Jews in battle in Givon against their enemies, the Emirates.
As that day drew to a close, the battle had not yet reached an absolute conclusion. For the moment, the Jews seemed to be winning. But if the battle had reached its inevitable end as darkness came, there would be no decisive victory, and the next morning they would face off against an enemy who would come at them with a renewed vigor. Each moment was precious. A miracle happened. The sun did not set. The day stretched for an additional 12 more hours.
The rules were broken, the battle was won, and at least for the moment, no one worshipped the sun, but only its Holy Infinite Maker. That was the third day of Tammuz. On the ninth of Tammuz, Jerusalem's walls were breached by Nebuchadnezzar II, a date observed as a fast day until the breaching of the second Jerusalem walls by the Roman Empire in the seventeenth of Tammuz. So the first walls were broken on the ninth of Tammuz,
the second walls were broken in the second temple on the seventeenth of Tammuz, which is the one we observe today as a fast day. So just some important takeaway lessons about the month of Tammuz. Number one, it's a time to take things a bit more seriously. Yeah, we celebrated Pesach, the time of our exodus. We had Iyar, a time of elevating ourselves, preparing ourselves for receiving the Torah, the revelation of Mount Sinai. Then we had the receiving of Torah, but then what happens? Then we fall. And as
human beings, we go up, we go down, we go up, we go down. That's the natural state of human beings. If you look at our EKG, you'll see it goes up and it goes down. If it flatlines, you're dead. Healthy people have ups and downs, but we have to try to lessen the downs. And that's an important time for us to realize that this was not a very high point for the Jewish people. This month was not a great month for us. Next month, even worse.
To prepare ourselves and to take it a little bit more seriously, especially because it's an off time. It's the summertime. The kids are out of school. It's vacation. It doesn't mean that we're free and we should just neglect our responsibilities. Number two is that there are consequences to our actions. Anybody who's learned anything in our classes hopefully walks away with one thing. There's reward and punishment. There's consequences. This, by the way, should be a principle for our education for our children as well. If your child does something,
they should feel a consequence for it. That doesn't mean we should be out to hurt them. God forbid. We love our children. We cherish them. But as such, they should learn that there are consequences. For example, you buy your child a bicycle, a beautiful bicycle. You tell them, listen, there's one responsibility that you have with your bicycle. Of course, riding it safely, wearing a helmet. But also you have to put it away every single time. If you don't,
it will be a consequence. You have to put your bicycle away. What happens if they don't put your bicycle away? Yeah, there's a punishment. There should be a punishment. But what happens if the parents don't do that? If the parents say, you know what, I told you, I warned you, I warned you, but parents don't like to do those consequences. You know what? They'll never learn their lesson. They will never learn their lesson. That's why it's important. Don't just threaten. Don't threaten.
Children understand. Children appreciate boundaries. Children appreciate learning that there's rules that they need to follow. Another thing is that one of the reasons that we're going to talk about this more when we talk about the month of Av and we talk about the day of Tisha B'Av, we need to be very cautious about proper speech. Our temple was destroyed because we didn't love one another properly and because we spoke negatively about one another. These are two areas that we should work on ourselves to perfect ourselves in every way possible.
Find a way to love every Jew and to speak positively about every person. And then lastly, Tammuz is a month of challenge and confrontation. Without challenge, there is no growth. Without confrontation, there's no way to see things as they are. My dear friends, we should have an uplifting month. Today being the first day of the month, let's do something special this month. Let's elevate ourselves. Let's take it, let's grab it by the horns and do something fabulous this month.
Let's make it the greatest month ever for the Jewish people and for ourselves. Amein. Have a great Chodesh, a great month with tremendous health. Blessing. Amein.
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