Tammuz 5785 תמוז

Friday, June 27. Summer is in full strength and bloom – walking among the trees and over streams soon after a major storm, we sense the lushness of greenery, and the abundance of water.  The air is warm and grows hot as the sun rises.  What a beautiful morning! – we lingered a little longer in our walking meditation and our reflections.

In the middle east, this month opens the hottest season of the year.  The sun beats down, and people, plants and animals suffer in the heat. Along with the heat comes a sense of abandonment, mourning and catastrophe.  This month we mark the 17^th of Tammuz, the beginning of the “3 weeks” leading to Tisha B’Av, which commemorates the fall of Jerusalem.  We therefore associate the month with sadness and despair. One of us brought a source from The Well[1] which talked about the importance of crying as a way of cleansing our hearts – a foundation for hope, ultimately.  The destruction of the summer is clarifying as we begin our journeys toward renewal, the High Holy Days in our sights.

The heat of summer also brings clarity of vision.  We are encouraged to see ourselves and the world as they really are, as distinguished from how we wish they would be. Another of our sources was a brief dvar by Rabbi Michael Unger (private Youtube)[2] where he talks about how good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things.  None of us is perfect or immune from imperfection; nothing is all one way or all another.  We are real, and human, and complicated.  Perhaps the hopeful sign here is that all we need to be is “good enough”, allowing others to be the same.  May we enter the challenging summer journey with grace and forgiveness, for ourselves and for others.  Chodesh Tov! – K. Miriam

Our next Rosh Chodesh walking meditation will honor the month of Av, Saturday, July 26, 8:30 am.  Rain or shine!  Contact us for location. 

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[1] See www.atthewellproject.com

[2] See https://bethelheights.org/