Come and see - The ultimate insight into tammuz

The design of the Hebrew calendar is far more than marking days and a way counting the months, it is a tool that provides you with an opportunity to refine certain parts of yourself.

When you study the Hebrew months in this way, you realize that every month builds on itself, time is interconnected and it becomes a journey for the soul.

According to Sefer Yetzirah, every month carries its own spiritual guidance to achieve true soul and personal growth. Each one is connected to a Hebrew letter, an astrological sign, a tribe of Israel, a body part, and a sense through which you experience the world and refine to achieve a higher spiritual state.

This artical is focused on the Hebrew month of Tammuz and a deeper insight into the sense of the month - sight. If you want an overall explanation of Tammuz, check out this article I wrote here.

But before you can understand why sight corresponds to Tammuz, you first need to understand where this month is placed within the Hebrew calendar. Click here to watch my YouTube video on Tammuz!

The Beginning of the Summer Journey

Tammuz marks the official beginning of the summer season.

The summer consists of three months:

• Tammuz

• Av

• Elul

Immediately after Elul comes Tishrei, the month of the High Holidays such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.

The spiritual energy that forms Tammuz comes from the astrological sign (cancer סרטן), planet (moon ירח), and it's position of being the first of the summer months. This means as a result of the above elements - Tammuz is a deeply emotional month. According to Sefer Yetzirah, it is one of the three months (Tammuz, Av, and Tevet) that is associated with Eisav (the twin bother, the opposite of Yaakov), Eisav was quick to anger, red in the face, emotional, and more connected to his animalistic attributes where as Yaakov was about balance, Torah, and reaching a higher spiritual state. Tammuz has the challenge of emotional tests and triggers surfacing this month. Yet, this is exactly what you need to be to understand where you need to concentrate our efforts for growth and the inner work! It is thanks to the emotional hardships and challenges you face in Tammuz that we can see (physically and spiritually) where you need to refine certain parts of yourself and come prepared to the High Holidays with this information!

If spring is a season of awakening, freshness, rebirthing then summer is a season of true refinement through our actions. And this how you begin to see the deeper insight into Tammuz, let's begin.

The question is:

Why does that journey begin with the sense of sight?

The Heat of Tammuz

The moment the summer begins, there is no mistaken the heat. Similar to Eisav, you become red in the face, overwhelmed, and full of chaotic energy (that needs to be directed!)

The days become their longest and you become your tiredest - a recipe for struggle if you aren't aware of the current energy. Life begins to feel as if it's moving faster

But perhaps the Torah is also pointing to another kind of heat.

The internal struggle that creates heat and anger but leads to decisions and understandings.

The heat of setbacks, frustration, and seeing a situation in a way that fills us with fear instead of faith.

Life itself becomes intense, overwhelming, and even hard to see the good.

In the Hebrew calendar, Tammuz and the month that follows, Av, are known as some of the most challenging months of the year because of the tragedies that took place during this period. In Tammuz that the walls of Jerusalem were breached and in Av that both Temples were destroyed.

As result of the historic tragedies and the connection Tammuz has to Eisav, you are pulled into the physical reality without deeper spiritual vision.

Perhaps this is why the spiritual work of Tammuz is connected to sight.

Because when life becomes difficult, the greatest challenge is often not what happens to you. The greatest challenge is how you see what happens to you, the perspective you have, and not doing something different.

The Spiritual Work of Seeing

When you begin to see the overwhelming moments, frustrations, annoyances, grievances with a specific lens, they provide a window into ourselves that you can connect with and learn to overcome and integrate.

In Tammuz, Hashem is encouraging you to notice how you view your life and interpret the struggles and events. There is an opportunity to transform the stories you tell yourself.

Because the way you perceive an event can completely change the direction of your life.

The hardest day can turn into the beginning of the greatest blessing.

The greatest disappointment can become the doorway to true alignment.

Even when we cannot understand something in the moment, it may be leading us exactly where we need to go. Tammuz reinforces the teaching that perception matters.

Tammuz is learning to See with the Soul

Ta Chazi - Come and See

One evening when I was learning Zohar, the phrase "Ta Chazi" was introduced. It had an interesting sound, it made me curious and intrigued over the topic that was being studied. This expression, Ta Chazi, is Arameic for Come and See. Before revealing a deep spiritual teaching, the Zohar invites us to see. As opposed to the Talmud which is "Ta Shma" Come and Listen.

But the expression is not related to ordinary sight and it's more than using our physical sight.

It is seeing beyond what the mind can understand. It is learning to see the essence of the teaching, deep within, and using the soul at the gateway to learning.

According to Kabbalah, the visible that world you experience through your senses is only part of reality; there are concealed spiritual significance present in your life and when you pay close attention - you can reveal the insight.

Sometimes what appears to be an obstacle is actually an invitation, what feels like a great setback can be a redirection to put you back on track.

When you lease expect it, the greatest periods of growth are the seasons you would never have imagined.

In Tammuz, this is when the work of strengthening how you view life through the lens of your soul becomes strengthened. To see deeper into the event and challenge.

Ta Chazi - what is this current experience trying to teach me? Reveal to me? Directing me to change? To overcome a habit or belief so I can be a closer version to who I want to become? Closer to Hashem?

We often expand our spiritual and personal capacity through difficulty, stretching ourselves when it's uncomfortable.

We learn when things are hard.

We evolve when we show up even when we are tired.

We grow when we continue walking even when we cannot yet see the destination.

Seeing with an Ayin Tovah

The month of Tammuz is connected to sight, and perhaps it is really teaching us perspective.

We have two eyes, yet our sages teach us about praciticing "seeing" with an ayin tovah, a good eye.

An ayin tovah does not ignore pain.

It does not pretend that hardship does not exist.

Rather, it chooses to believe that hardship can have meaning.

Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, observed that when people can find purpose in suffering, they discover the strength to move forward.

This idea resonates deeply with Torah.

When our struggles have purpose, they become opportunities for transformation.

Tammuz asks us to look at our lives differently.

Instead of asking, "Why is this happening to me?"

Perhaps we can ask,

"What can this teach me?"

"How can this help change for the better?" "How can I act differently if ______ shows up? Ask yourself some questions that will change your perspective.

Preparing for Tishrei

When we understand the place of Tammuz within the Hebrew calendar, we realize that it is preparing us for something much greater.

Tammuz prepares the journey.

Av deepens it.

Elul returns us.

Tishrei brings us back to Hashem.

Perhaps this is why the work begins with sight. Before we can change our actions, we must change our perception. Before we can return to Hashem, we must learn to see ourselves honestly. Before we can receive a new year, we must recognize the meaning hidden within the challenges we faced during the year.

The Zohar calls to us:

Ta chazi. Come and see.

See with faith.

See with hope.

See with the soul.

And perhaps that is the gift of Tammuz.

To discover that even in the heat of struggle, even in seasons of concealment, Hashem is teaching us how to see the light that was there all along.

Chodesh Tov, Elisheva