Summer is HERE, all you bright flames. The days are at their longest and outside it’s hot, hott, hawt. As you simmer and shimmer, think back to the lessons of dark, frosty Kislev and the illumination of Chanukah. Way back then, in the dead of winter, we worked to see the light shining in the darkness. Six months later, during the super bright Tammuz, we get the inverse of this lesson. And here it is, womenfrenz: there’s also darkness inside the light. 

While summer definitely means no school, tons of barbeques, and carefree afternoons, when we approach this season from the Hebrew calendar, we see that the scorching light of summer also brings deep and challenging lessons in mourning and grief.

Numerous studies have shown that crime rates spike during the summer months, a sharp reminder of what the Hebrew calendar is trying to explain. When the sun’s rays are at their harshest, the heat from that unrelenting, powerful light can get misdirected, causing us humans to do very human things. Like become overheated, impatient, and quick to anger, under the light of the blinding sun. 

Jewish sages tell us to pay very close attention to the emotional heat of Tammuz. If undirected, this force can be brutal, intense, and cause us to lose ourselves in anger like Moses does in the first Torah portion of Tammuz, when he strikes a rock impatiently demanding water from God. Check it — even Moses gets overheated! But it’s not all heat and anger and uphill climbing this month. By calling upon Teshuvah, the return to oneself/repentance, this challenging month can open us to deep revelations about our own power and potential.

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