Temple Institute: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz & the Rebellion of Korach

Rosh Chodesh Tammuz & the Rebellion of Korach

Tammuz 3, 5766/June 29, 2006

Rosh Chodesh, the sighting of the new moon marking the beginning of the Hebrew month was celebrated in The Holy Temple with special Rosh Chodesh offerings. To this day it is marked in our daily prayer with the singing of the Hallel and the Musaf service. It is a also understood to be a unique opportunity to do teshuva - make repentance. The month of Tammuz, a month associated with the divine quality of harsh judgment, is the month during which the twelve princes of the tribes of Israel sent by Moses spent their days studying the land and its inhabitants from up close. Having left the Israelite encampment of the last day of the month of Sivan, they would not return to report to Moses until the ninth day of the month of Av, a full forty days later. Each and every day of the month of Tammuz was spent compounding their sin. As recompense, G-d decreed that the months of Av and Tammuz would from that day forth be replete with disaster and tragedy for the Jewish people. While the month of Av begins in darkness, a spiritual upturn does occurs on the fifteenth day of the month. The month of Tammuz, however, remains bitter from start to finish, complicit, as it were, with the impending disaster of the destruction of the Holy Temple. So it is fair to say that Rosh Chodesh Tammuz is an especially propitious time for doing teshuva, as part of our desire to regain control of our destiny, and rebuild G-d's Holy Temple.

What does all this have to do with Korach, the antagonist of this (past) week's Torah reading by the same name? (Numbers 16:1 - 18:32) To learn that answer to this question, we urge you to listen to this week's Temple Talk broadcast, with Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven.

Also on this week's Temple Talk:


Ascending the Temple Mount - an act of avodah - worship.
Creating a prayer book in English for G-d fearing Gentiles.
Drawing up architectural plans for the Holy Temple: The Chamber of Hewn Stone, seat of the Great Sanhedrin.
Rabbi Chaim Richman and Yitzchak Reuven discuss ambitious new plans for The Temple Institute.

May we soon merit the end of exile and the beginning of redemption.
Yitzchak Reuven

THE TEMPLE INSTITUTE
PO Box 31876
Jerusalem, Israel 97500