Tammuz (Hebrew month)

← Sivan       Tammuz (תמוז)       Av →
Tammuz is the month of the sin of the golden calf, which resulted in Moses breaking the Ten Commandments.
Month Number:	4
Number of Days:	29
Season:	Summer
Gregorian Equivalent:	June–July

Tammuz (Hebrew: תמוז‎‎: Standard Tammuz, Tiberian Tammûz), or Tamuz, is the tenth month of the civil year and the fourth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a boreal summer month of 29 days, which occurs on the Gregorian calendar around June–July.

The name of the month was adopted from the zodiac sign aptly named Tammuz (Hebrew), or in English, Cancer. It is also a month in the modern Assyrian calendar of the ethnic Assyrian Christians.

Holidays in Tammuz

17 Tammuz - Seventeenth of Tammuz – (Fast Day)

17 Tammuz is a fast day from 1 hour before sunrise to sundown in remembrance of Jerusalem's walls being breached. 17 Tammuz is the beginning of The Three Weeks, in which Jews follow similar customs as the ones followed during the Omer from the day following Passover until the culmination of the mourning for the death of the students of Rabbi Akiva (the thirty-third day of the Omer – such as refraining from marriage and haircuts.^[1] The Three Weeks culminate with Tisha Be-Av (9th of Av).

Ashkenazi communities refrain from wine and meat from the beginning of the month of Av, while Sefardi communities only do so from the second day of the month. The mourning continues until noon on the 10th of Av, the date on which the Second Temple's destruction was complete.

Tammuz in Jewish history

• 3 Tammuz (c. 1272 BCE) – Joshua stops the sun (Joshua 10:1-15)
• 3 Tammuz (1994 CE) – Death of Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
• 4 Tammuz (1171 CE) – Death of Rabbeinu Tam
• 4 Tammuz (1286 CE) – Maharam imprisoned
• 5 Tammuz (c. 592 BCE) – Ezekiel receives his "Chariot" vision (Ezekiel 1:4-26)
• 6 Tammuz (1976 CE) – Entebbe Rescue
• 9 Tammuz (c. 586 BCE) – Jerusalem walls breached by King Nebuchadnezzar, a date observed as a fast day until the second breaching of Jerusalem's walls by the Romans on the 17th of Tammuz (70 CE)^[2]
• 15 Tammuz (1743 CE) – Death of Rabbi Chayim ben Attar (Ohr HaChayim)
• 17 Tammuz (c. 1312 BCE) – Golden Calf offered by the Jewish people, 40 days after the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai. This is the first of the 5 national tragedies mourned on this day.
• 17 Tammuz (c. 1312 BCE) – Smashing of the first Tablets by Moses.
• 17 Tammuz (c. 586 BCE) – The daily sacrifices in the Holy Temple were discontinued.
• 17 Tammuz (70 CE) – Walls of Jerusalem breached by the Roman army.
• 17 Tammuz The Roman general Apostomus burned the Torah and placed an idol in the Holy Temple.
• 21 Tammuz (1636 CE) – Death of the Kabbalist Baal Shem of Worms, grandson of Rabbi Joselman of Rosheim, and author of Michlal Yofi commentary on Ecclesiastes.
• 22 Tammuz (1792 CE) – Death of Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin
• 23 Tammuz (1570 CE) – Death of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero
• 28 Tammuz (1841 CE) – Death of Yismach Moshe
• 29 Tammuz (150 CE) – Death of Johanan HaSandlar
• 29 Tammuz (1105 CE) – Death of Rashi

Other uses

• "Tammūz" (Arabic: ﺗﻤﻮﺯ), is also the name for the month of July in Iraq, the Levant and Turkey ("Temmuz" in Turkish). In Syriac it is ܬܡܘܙ. In Lebanon, Syria, and the Palestinian territories, the 2006 Lebanon War is generally known as حرب تموز Ḥarb Tammūz (i.e. the July War), following the Arab custom of naming the Arab-Israeli wars after months or years.

References In fiction

• In the story of Xenogears, Tammuz is the name of a country, named after the Hebrew month. In the official Japanese version translation, however, it was transliterated Tamuzu. This was later further changed by the translation process to Thames for the English version.

References

• This Month in Jewish History

1. http://ohr.edu/holidays/tisha_bav/law_and_ritual/1146
2. This is according to the Talmud, Rosh Hashanah and Tur Orach Chaim 549. However, Karaite Jews continue to observe the fast on Tammuz 9.