For the deity, see Tammuz (deity).

Tammuz was the name of a month in the Babylonian calendar, named for one of the main Babylonian gods, Tammuz (Sumerian: Dumuzid, "son of life").^[1] The name was adopted for use in many different calendars thereafter.

In (Hebrew: תמוז, Standard Tammuz Tiberian Tammûz) is the tenth month of the civil year and the fourth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a summer month of 29 days.

Tammuz is also the name for the month of July in the Gregorian calendar in Arabic (تموز), Assyrian (ܬܡܘܙ) and Turkish ("Temmuz").^[2]

Babylonian calendar

The festival for the deity Tammuz was held throughout the month of Tammuz in midsummer, and celebrated his death and resurrection.^[3] The first day of the month of Tammuz was the day of the new moon of the summer solstice.^[4] On the second day of the month, there was lamentation over the death of Tammuz, on the 9th, 16th and 17th days torchlit processions, and on the last three days, an image of Tammuz was buried.^[3]

Hebrew calendar

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 (Akibah) the thirty-third day of the Omer - such as refraining from marriage, grooming festivals and fairs. The Three Weeks culminate with Tisha Be-Av (9th of Av).

Differences between Ashkenazic and Sefardic communities make the former overly more strict about the mourning followed during this weeks. For example, Ashkenazic communities refrain from wine and meat since the beginning of the month of Av, while Sefardic communities only do so since the beginning of the week in which the 9th of Av occurs and until the end of such date or in some occasions the end of the 10th of Av, which marks the date in which the Second Temple's destruction was accomplished as well as an important part of the mourning of the Jewish Nation for the destruction of the communities of Gush Katif and North Samaria in Israel.

Chabad-Lubavitch

Among the Chabad-Lubavitch, two major events are celebrated in the first half of the month of Tammuz.

3 Tammuz - Gimmel Tammuz - the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the death) of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.
12 Tammuz and 13 Tammuz - Festival of Redemption - commemorating the days on which the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn was released from imprisonment in the Soviet Union for teaching Judaism.

Tammuz in Jewish history

3 Tammuz - Joshua stops the sun.
4 Tammuz - (1171) - Death of Rabbeinu Tam
4 Tammuz - (1286) - Maharam imprisoned
5 Tammuz - (429 BCE) - Ezekiel's vision of the "Chariot"

• This was of the Hebrew year 3332 (429 BCE), Ezekiel, who was one of the Prophets to prophesy outside the Land of Israel, had a vision of the Divine "Chariot" which represented the spiritual infrastructure of creation. (Ezekiel 1:4-26)

6 Tammuz - (1976) - Entebbe Rescue
9 Tammuz - (586 BCE) - Jerusalem Walls breached

• The Babylonian armies of King Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem on the 9th of Tammuz in the Hebrew year 3338 (586 BCE). King Ziddikiahu (pronounced Tsidikyahu - known as Zedekiah in English) of Judah was captured and taken to Babylon. A month later the capture of Jerusalem was finished with the destruction of the Holy Temple and the exile of most Jews to Babylon). Tammuz 9 was observed as a fast day until the second breaching of Jerusalem's walls by the Romans on the 17th of Tammuz, which was in the Hebrew year 3830 (70 CE), at which time the Rabbis moved the fast to that date. This is according to the Talmud, [[Rosh Hashanah (Talmud)|Rosh Hashanah]] and Tur Orach Chaim 549. However, Karaite Jews continue to observe the fast on Tammuz 9.

15 Tammuz - (1743) - Death of Rabbi Chayim ben Attar (Ohr HaChayim)
17 Tammuz - (586 BCE) - Temple service disrupted

• The daily sacrificial offerings (Korban Tamid) in the Holy Temple were discontinued, three weeks before the Babylonians' destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE.

17 Tammuz - (70 CE) - Jerusalem Walls Breached

• The other three national tragedies mourned on Tammuz 17 are connected with the Roman conquest of Jerusalem and their destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. Firstly, the walls of the besieged city of Jerusalem were breached. Secondly, the Roman general Apostomus burned the Torah and, third was that he placed an idol in the Holy Temple. The fighting in Jerusalem continued for three weeks until the 9th of Av, when the Holy Temple was set aflame.

21 Tammuz - (1636) - Death of Baal Shem of Worms

• Kabbalist Rabbi Eliyahu ben Moshe Loanz, who was known as "Rabbi Eliyahu Baal Shem" of Worms, Germany, died on the 21st of Tammuz which was the Hebrew year 5396 (1636 CE). He was a grandson of the shtadlan (Jewish activist) Rabbi Joselman of Rosheim, and the author of Michlal Yofi commentary on Ecclesiastes.

22 Tammuz - (1792) - Death of Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin
23 Tammuz - (1570) - Death of Rabbi Moshe Cordovero
28 Tammuz - (1841) - Death of Yismach Moshe
29 Tammuz - (1105) - Death of Rashi

In Arabic sources

Tammuz is the month of July in Arabic,^[2] and references to the month of Tammuz, its history, and celebratory rites with which it is associated are discussed in Arabic literature from the 9th to 11th centuries AD.^[5] In his translation of an earlier work, Ibn Wahshiyya (c. 9th-10th century AD), enumerates the months of the Babylonian year adding a remark that Tammuz lived in Babylonia before the coming of the Chaldeans and belonged to an ancient Mesopotamian tribe called Ganbân.^[5] He adds that the Sabaeans in Harran and Babylonia still lamented the loss of Tammuz every July, but that the origin of the worship had been lost.^[5] Al-Nadim in his 10th century work Kitab al-Fehrest drawing from a work on Syriac calendar feast days, describes a Tâ'ûz festival that took place in the middle of the month of Tammuz.^[5] Women bewailed the death of Tammuz at the hands of his master who was said to have "ground his bones in a mill and scattered them to the wind."^[5] Consequently, women would forgo the eating of ground foods during the festival time.^[5] The same festival is mentioned in the 11th century by Ibn Athir as still taking place in the month of Tammuz on the banks of the Tigris river.^[5]

The 2006 Lebanon War is known in Lebanon and much of the Arab world as حرب تموز Ḥarb Tammūz (the July War), following the Arab custom of naming the Arab-Israeli wars by months or years.

Other references

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.