Tammuz - The Fourth Month

The month of Tammuz is the fourth month of the year, starting from Nisan. In this month, the people of Israel returned from Babylonian exile. The zodiac sign for this month is Cancer, named for the constellation that rules the sky this month and resembles a crab. During Tammuz, the heat intensifies, leading to an increase in water crabs in the tribe of Judah's waters.

Tammuz includes several events, some of which we commemorate today and some that occurred in the past. On Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the Golden Calf was made, and women who abstain from work on Rosh Chodesh should take extra care during R"C Tammuz since they did not give their jewelry for the Golden Calf.

On the third day of Tammuz, Joshua stopped the sun in Gibeon and the moon in the Valley of Ayalon during the battle against the southern kings to complete the war with the Amorites and take revenge on the nations (Joshua chapter 6). On the fifth of Tammuz, seven years after the conquest of Jehoiakim, King Jehoiachin of Judah was exiled to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar after a severe siege. He emptied the temple of all treasures and cut up the gold vessels made by King Solomon, exiling ten thousand men from Jerusalem, along with all the craftsmen and smiths, except for seven thousand warriors and heroes who went to exile from the northwest gate of the Temple Mount, hence the gate is called Jechoniah's Gate.

On the ninth of Tammuz, the famine in Jerusalem intensified during Nebuchadnezzar's siege, and the city was breached. King Zedekiah and all his soldiers fled Jerusalem through the city's garden, through a hidden cave, and the pursuers did not know his escape route. Hashem appointed a deer for them, and they pursued him to capture him until they reached the plains of Jericho, where they saw the miracles emerging from the cave, captured them, and brought them to Nebuchadnezzar, who ordered that Zedekiah's sons be slaughtered before him and Zedekiah's eyes were blinded.

This day was a fast day in Israel. The seventeenth of Tammuz is the day the city was breached during the destruction of the Second Temple. Since the breach, the seventeenth of Tammuz has been set as a public fast. Theoretically, the ninth of Tammuz should also have been a public fast day, as according to one opinion, the wall was breached during the destruction of the First Temple. However, since the destruction of the Second Temple weighs more heavily on us, it was not desirable to decree a fast also on the ninth of Tammuz so as not to burden the public too much.

There is an opinion that even in the First Temple the city was breached on the seventeenth of Tammuz, but due to the troubles, there was an error in the count, and the scribes wrote the ninth instead of the seventeenth. Therefore, the fast is held only on the seventeenth of Tammuz, marking the start of the Three Weeks until the ninth of Av, called "Between the Straits," as it is written in Lamentations: "All her pursuers overtook her between the straits." During this period, many troubles befell Israel, along with the breaching of Jerusalem's walls. The Zohar states that the twenty-two days of "Between the Straits" correspond to the twenty-two years that Joseph the righteous did not see his father's face. From this, we learn the importance of honoring one's parents, especially.

Events that took place on the seventeenth of Tammuz:

A The tablets were broken

B. The daily sacrifice was canceled

C. Apostomos burned the Torah, and this act is attributed by some to Antiochus Epiphanes, who was said to have torn and burned all Torah scrolls he found. D. The city was breached

E. An idol was placed in the temple, and it is attributed by some to Apostomos the wicked, who did so on that day. Some interpret it as the idol made by King Manasseh and placed in the temple, and that day was the seventeenth of Tammuz. From the seventeenth of Tammuz, Jews enter a three-week period of mourning for the destruction of the temple.

During these days, the Jewish people refrain from various activities: there are no weddings, no music is played or listened to, and haircuts are avoided. All this is done in connection to the distant past, lamenting the destruction of the temple, a disaster that occurred over 2,000 years ago, and hoping for its rebuilding.

The memory of the past accompanies us from the difficult event of the temple's destruction, pointing to a people who have maintained their uniqueness over two thousand years of exile, a people that does not forget its past and lives in mourning in the present, with hope for the future. On the seventeenth of Tammuz, the ancient decrees of Spanish extinction reached their peak in the year of 1491, where Rabbi Yehuda of Toledo from the lineage of Rabbi Asher (the Rosh), his wife, and mother-in-law were killed in sanctification of Hashem.

On the seventeenth of Tammuz, Noah sent the dove for the first time from the ark to see "whether the waters had abated from the face of the earth" (Genesis 8:8), "...but the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot" (8:9). Scholars found in this a hint that the congregation of Israel, likened to a dove (Berachot 23a), found no rest on that day. Tammuz is an acronym: Times of Repentance Draw Near, indicating the approach of the High Holy Days (from R"C Tammuz until Yom Kippur is 100 days). Therefore, the diligent ones begin to repent and return. Everyone should keep this in mind during those days, examine their deeds, and repent, for the essence is not the fast but the repentance, and the fast is only a preparation for repentance.

In the Midrash Eicha Rabbah 1 it is said: "These are the days of distress between the seventeenth of Tammuz and the ninth of Av, during which destructive forces rule and many evil troubles find Israel in his generations during these days. Therefore, one should be more cautious than usual regarding anything that poses a risk or danger, and during these days a teacher should not hit his students, nor should a father hit his son."

The mourning during the days Between the Straits instills in the Jewish consciousness a sense of belonging to the Jewish people and its heritage. A Jew who lives three weeks a year in such mourning for the destruction feels his connection to his past and his people. Thanks to the memory of the past, we have reached the present. The Jewish people are the only nation that knew and knows how to maintain its uniqueness over thousands of years of exile and to preserve its identity in all situations, even in the Holy Land, along with the hope for redemption and the coming of our righteous Messiah, which we hope will come soon in our days, Amen!