The Royal Tea - Chodesh Tov Tammuz

The fullest of gratitude to be able to bring you the kavanah for the Hebrew month of Tammuz! As we start the new season, the 4th month of Hebrew calendar initiates the sizzle of summer. Within this month we have Parashiyyot: Qorach, Chuqat-Balaq, Pinchas, Matot-Massei—and honestly this is the month where emotions are higher than normal. This heightened intensity also drives cemented actions which result in generationally impactful judgments. Therefore, we have to be very careful that we avoid feeling and then immediately doing and/or speaking (primal) and instead, this month, we must consider: feeling, THINKING, and then doing and/or speaking. Extending the response time, spiritually.

When we align the Parashat to the moon cycle, which is super powerful in results this month, we find Parashat Qorach will guide the intentionality and planning behind the seeds we sow, Chuqat-Balaq will facilitate the actions we put forth to cultivate those seeds, Pinchas will define the aura of how we nurture those seeds, and Matot-Massei will solidify the growth of those seeds—all by way of divine intervention allowing us to rest. Keeping in mind the book of Numbers is designed to assist us with creating or releasing key members of our tribe to create a functional society and thereby allowing us to share in achieving a purposeful life, collectively.

So how does this all come together?…

Take stock of all the maternal energy in your life. Tammuz the “motherly” month, guides everything from our natural maternal instinct to our interactions with caregiver based occupations. Assess all maternal energy around by asking yourself:

“Is this maternal energy serving me in alignment with my relationship with Hashem?” 

“Am I pouring into this maternal energy from an overflowing cup or a deficient one?”

“Who do I need in my tribe that gives the maternal energy I would like to receive?”

“Is there someone I need to talk to about how they are showing up maternally?,” 

“Am I ready to let go of this maternal relationship once and for all?

Keeping in mind “we are not here to be perfect, we are here to perfect.”-Rabbi Youdkevitch. In life, our focus is never about looking for perfection in someone, it’s about discovering who is perfect for us to share this experience of perfecting the world with together. And to honor and respect the process of doing so.

This month we care more about being the light, than we care about being right. Why? Because the month of Tammuz is one of the three months when the protection shield of the Shekhinah is hidden and therefore that “motherly’ backing we have been accustomed to from Hashem: feeling nurtured when uncertain, feeling healed when wounded, feeling safe to be creative, feeling beautiful and seeing beauty all around us will pause to some degree to expose what we have truly learned and to allow us to check-in with our physical environment—specifically our tribe.

For example, in Parashat Korach we examine two wives, of two totally different mindsets: one who dares to build an unhealthy ego within her husband, and one who desires to mollify the ego within her husband. These men; briefly, are without the fullness of spiritual coverage, and therefore Hashem exposes them so that they may discover the cloth by which the Queen on their team is really cut from… 

What both men wanted was the same result—Dignity or better defined as self respect. The both felt inferior, less than, and wanted a sense of power. While one wife used her power of persuasion in an undignified manner to ultimately bring death upon her Qorach and all the members of her household, we find another wife utilizing that same power in a dignified manner by way of modesty which actually sustained her On Ben Pelets’ life!

While maternal energy sometimes plays the back: the supporting actress to a main character partner, the vent session therapist in the work bathroom, the sounding board after “I know mom!,” the clergy who never touched a bimah—the women who is respected by all because the position she holds within her tribe and the dignified manner in which she heals, nurtures, creates, and beautifies it, is never determined by whether the world will recognize her for it, yet because she ultimately understands that Hashem always will. 

Chodesh tov!