After the liberation of Nissan, the healing work of Iyar, and the grand revelation of Sivan, the Jewish calendar undergoes a sudden change in tone.

The brilliant light of Sinai begins to fade into the heavy heat of summer, and Tammuz arrives not with inspiration, but with weight.

This is the month where faith is tested not in moments of spiritual clarity, but in the quieter experience of distance.

It marks the beginning of the Three Weeks—the season when the walls of Jerusalem were breached, beginning the long descent toward the destruction of the Temple. Yet long before stone walls collapsed under enemy hands, something else weakened first: clarity, restraint, and inner vision.

No civilization falls externally before it first begins eroding within.

The breach always begins small.

The Hebrew letter associated with Tammuz is chet (ח), the letter that begins the sacred word chaim—life. Its form resembles an enclosure: two upright pillars........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)