The Month of Tammuz

By seeing the auspicious days in a month, we get to see the auspicious theme of the entire month. For example, in Adar, the month of the Purim holiday the Book of Esther reads (9:22), ‘and the month that was reversed for them from grief to joy and from mourning.’ However, the month of Tammuz carries two antithetical days within it: (i) The Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz, and (ii) the Liberation Holiday of the 12th-13th of Tammuz. Hence, what is the auspicious theme of the month of Tammuz?! And interestingly enough, through out history, as far back as the year 2448 (1312 BCE), when Moses broke the Tablets, and later in the years 425 BCE & 69 CE when the walls of Jerusalem were twice breached, Tammuz was known as a month of mourning, and it is only in recent years, since 1927, that it has been revealed that Tammuz is a month of joy and redemption. Why?

The very name of the month Tammuz has antithetical meanings, as well: (i) Tammuz is the name of an idol, as Ezekiel states (8:14), ‘And behold there the women were sitting, making the Tammuz weep,’ which Rashi explains, ‘There was an image that they would heat up from the inside, and its eyes, which were of lead, would melt from the heat of the fire, and it would appear as though it was weeping, and they would say, ‘It is asking for an offering.’’ (ii) ‘Tammuz is an expression of heating,’ and it is explained multiple times, at great length, that the heat of Tammuz, is a very exalted level, for everything in the physical realm is a reflection of its source in the spiritual realm, and so too, the intensity of the sun in the summer is the intensity of the revelation of (Psalms 84:12), ‘For a sun… is the L-rd,’ the revelation of the Supernal Ineffable Tetragrammaton, the Encompassing Infinite Light.

We can’t just say that the theme of Tammuz is to reveal to us that the deeper dimension and purpose of exile (17th of Tammuz) is to nullify the, ‘Because of our sins were we exiled from our land,’ (through doing Teshuvah (repentance; return)) bringing the redemption (12th of Tammuz), for then day of liberation (12th) should have come after the day of exile (17th)! More so, if the theme is the liberation that comes from the exile, and hence, the liberation is the focal point, how could it be that for most of our history we knew only of the exile theme of Tammuz?! Hence, we must say that the theme of the month of Tammuz is the Fast of the 17th of Tammuz.

Within the concept of a fast-day there are two forms: (i) Externally, it is about the sufferings that have befallen us, and (ii) Internally, it is about --as it will be in the times of Moshiach--, when, ‘And the glory of G-d shall be revealed,’ which then will be (Zachariah 8:19), ‘So said the L-rd of Hosts: The fast of the fourth [month], the fast of the fifth [month], the fast of the seventh [month], and the fast of the tenth [month] shall be for the house of Judah for joy and happiness and for happy holidays -but love truth and peace.’ And the meaning here is not that the fast-day will lead us to a joy, but rather, that the fast-day itself shall be joy, for ultimately, even the ‘sufferings’ themselves were but internally expressions of G-d’s love to the Jewish people. Even the destruction of the Holy Temple was all about (Eicha Rabba 4:14), ‘And the Holy One, blessed be he, poured His anger upon wood and upon stones,’ and not upon His sons and daughters. And this is what our sages teach us that the day of Tisha B’Av (day of destruction) will every year coincide with the day of the week that was the first day of Passover (day of redemption) on that year, for redemption is the internal theme of the destruction.

Even deeper yet, the very ‘Strength and Strictness’ of the exile, which clothes the internal love and reveals itself in an opposite fashion of love and kindness, is precisely because of the intense love that the father has for his son, and hence, is deeply touched and effected by any fault of the son, conquering his compassion and kindness, and taking the difficult step of punishing his son to heal him from any spiritual or character defect!

And this is precisely why, when Moshiach comes, the deepest day of destruction and mourning, the 9th of Av, will become a holiday, and even greater holiday than all other holidays. Because, now within our 9th of Av of fasting and mourning is the deepest love of G-d, our Father, to us, His children. Only that now, it is covered, and we are experiencing it as anger and punishment. However, ‘after the judgement will be done, and the anger will be finished,’ what will be revealed is the inner theme of the punishment, which is the intense love of G-d to us. Hence, throughout history, when the judgement and the anger were intense and fierce, the inner theme of love and redemption could not be revealed. However, now, as we are getting closer to Moshiach, and on this ‘Friday afternoon,’ we are getting a taste of the ‘Shabbat era,’ of Moshiach, the revelation of the intense love of G-d for us, within the present month of mourning. And hence, it was now revealed to us that Tammuz, in essence, is about the Liberation of the 12th and 13th of Tammuz, the revelation of how the (Stalinist) persecution was but the internal theme of liberation, of the revelation of G-d’s love and the esoteric teachings of His Torah. We now see that the only purpose in the crushing of the olive was to bring forth its precious oil.

And so too, in the times of darkness, judgement and anger, all that was revealed was that Tammuz was the name of an idol. However, now, in the foretaste of Moshiach and its revelation of chassidus, we now see that the inner theme of the, ‘heat of the fire,’ of the, ‘Tammuz is an expression of heating,’ is specifically because, within (the transformation of) darkness lay the greatest light, the light of the Ineffable Tetragrammaton infinite name of G-d.

The Lesson: In the times of our mourning the destruction of the Holy Temple and the exile, we must reveal the inner-theme of joy and love, through the study of Torah, the festivity of making a siyum on a Torah-study, and specifically the study of the building of the Holy Temple.