Tammuz by Shoshannah Brombacher

Tammuz

Painting by Shoshannah Brombacher.

Tammuz (Hebrew: תמוז) is the tenth month of the civil year and the fourth month in the  the Hebrew calendar. 

The name was adopted from the Babylonian calendar, in which the month was named after one of the main Babylonian gods, Tammuz. 

17 Tammuz - Seventeenth of Tammuz – (Fast Day). 

17 Tammuz is a fast day in remembrance of Jerusalem's walls being breached. This year it fell on Shabbat, therefore we observe the fast the following day, Sunday July 8. 

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 the thirty-third day of the Omer - such as refraining from marriage and haircuts.^[1] The Three Weeks culminate with Tisha Be-Av (9th of Av).

Ashkenazi communities refrain from wine and meat from the beginning of the month of Av, while Sefardi communities only do so from the beginning of the week in which the 9th of Av occurs. The mourning continues until noon on the 10th of Av, the date on which the Second Temple's destruction was complete.

More info on the Three Weeks and Tisha Be-Av here.