The Month of Tammuz- (+Live Kabbalah Video)
By Rabbi Amichai Cohen
Characteristics of the month
Permutation of G-d’s Name: יהוה) הוהי) Hey, Vav, Hey, Yud
Tribe: ראובן Reuven
Letter: ח Chet
Constellation: סרטן Cancer
Sense: ראיה Smell
Body part: עינים The eyes
Tammuz is the name of Dumuzi, the Acadian sun-god (the Adonis of the Greeks), the husband of the goddess Ishtar. In the Chaldean calendar there was a month set apart in honor of this god, the month of June to July, the beginning of the summer solstice. At this festival, which lasted six days, the worshippers, with loud lamentations, bewailed the funeral of the god, they sat "weeping for Tammuz" ( Ezekiel 8:14 )
How do we resolve this apparent contradiction? Why would a Jewish month be named after an idol? The source of idolatry is the worshiping of the self, the worshiping of the body. Tammuz is a month where someone has the ability to access G-d in the deepest of ways or there is the ability for a person to worship the self and become absorbed...