The month of Tamuz comes right after the month of Sivan. Sivan is the month of מתן תורה, so Tamuz, which comes right after Sivan, is the first month right after מתן תורה. And even though מתן תורה was in the beginning of the month, so lichora how can we say that the month of Sivan is the month of מתן תורה when really מתן תורה was just on a certain day in the beginning of the month of Sivan? But we understand that inyan of מתן תורה has a special connection to the whole month, as we see that in Chumash, in תורה שבכתב, the Torah only mentions that מתן תורה was in the third month. It doesn't mention exactly which day of the month it was. In תורה שבעל פה, in Gemara, it tells us which day of the month it was, and even there it's not so clear. There's a machloket between Rabbi Yosi and the chachamim in גמרא שבת דף פ״ו עמוד ב׳ whether it was the sixth day of the month or the seventh day of the month. But in Chumash itself, it doesn't mention bichlal which day of the month it was. It just says it was in the third month, so obviously it has a connection to the whole month. And even in Gemara, in תורה שבעל פה, in מסכת שבת דף פ״ז עמוד א׳ it says it was in the ירחא תליתאי, in the third month. So we see that we connect the month to מתן תורה. The fact that in Chumash it says it was ביום השלישי, and the Gemara also mentions that it was יומא תליתאי, that's not the day of the month, that's the third day from the days of hachana, for preparation to מתן תורה. But as far as the day of the month, it's not mentioned clearly in תורה שבכתב. So we see that the inyan of מתן תורה has a connection to the whole month. And we do find a similar thing, that even though something happened in a specific day of the month, but it has an effect on the whole month, and that is concerning Purim. It says החודש אשר נהפך להם, it's the month that was changed from יגון לשמחה, from אבל ליום טוב, it was changed from mourning into joyous occasion, into holidays, etc. etc. Even though the miracle took place davka on a certain day, it took place on the 13th or the 14th day of the month of Adar, and therefore the celebration is on the 14th or on the 15th day of Adar, and still we say that the whole month became a special month, it has an effect on the whole month. And that's why the Yerushalmi says, and the Rama brings it, that היכא ד- if a person knows he will not be able to read the Megillah in its proper time, he could read it any day from the beginning of the month of Adar. So we see that something that happens in a certain day of the month has a connection to the whole month.

So mimela getting back to our point here, the month of Sivan, the whole month, is the month of matan Torah. Matan Torah has an effect on the whole month of Sivan. So the first month that comes after matan Torah is the month of Tamuz. What does that show us? Being as this is the first month right after matan Torah, so this is the first month that represents the avodah of the בני ישראל, the avodat Hashem of the Yidden. Because matan Torah is the גילוי מלמעלה. Matan Torah was when the Torah was given מן השמים from Hashem to the בני ישראל. So the inyan of matan Torah represents the fact that Hashem gave the Torah from its highest levels and brought it down into this world to the בני ישראל. What comes after that? The next step after Hashem giving the Torah is the step of the בני ישראל working with the Torah, taking the Torah and using it and doing what the Torah wants of them. That is represented in the next month. Since the first month, the month of Sivan, is the month of matan Torah, so Tamuz is the month that represents the avodah of the בני ישראל using the Torah, doing what the Torah wants them to do. Which is similar, to a certain degree, to what the Baal Shem Tov used to say, that the second day of Shavuot is a very, very special day, even more than the first. And his talmid, the Mezritcher Maggid, explained that what is so special about the second day of Shavuot, and he said because this is the first day after matan Torah. Which means that Shavuos, the sixth day of Sivan, is מתן תורה, that's when השם מן השמים מלמעלה gave us the Torah, so the day afterwards, the first day after מתן תורה, represents the avodah of the בני ישראל, the fact that the Yidden take the Torah and work with the Torah and do what the Torah says. And the same is concerning months. Just like we're speaking concerning days, that the day after מתן תורה, the Mezritcher Maggid explained, is the day that represents the beginning of the avodah of the בני ישראל, so too, the first month after the month of מתן תורה represents the month when the Yidden start their avodah in of serving Hashem.

And u've'emet, this is also hinted in the fact that Sivan is חודש השלישי, is the third month, and the Gemara makes the whole fuss over it that this is ירחא תליתאי, the third month, and the month of Tammuz is the fourth month. And in Tanach when it refers to the תענית of שבעה עשר בתמוז, it says it's called צום הרביעי, the fast of the fourth month. So it refers to חודש תמוז as the fourth month. What is the significance of the fourth לגבי the third? As the Gemara says in שבת דף ק״ד עמוד א׳ that the letters גמל דלת, which is three and four, represent the ענין of גומל דלים. גומל means גמילות חסד, doing chesed, and דל, it means to the poor. So גמל דלת, גמל is the word גומל, the giving, דלת is from the word דל, which is the poor, is the מקבל, the one that receives the גמילות חסד. So we see from that Gemara that גמל refers to the giver, and דלת refers to the taker. גמל refers to the משפיע, and דלת refers to the מקבל. And this is as we said before, that the month of Sivan is the month of מתן תורה, the month when Hashem gave the Torah, and even though it's also the time of קבלת התורה when אידן received the Torah, but it's only receiving what they were given, but it doesn't represent yet the מקבל, meaning the utilizing of what you got, but the דלת, that is the מקבל, the one that gets the tzedakah, that is, as we said before, the beginning of using, that the one that received the Torah uses the Torah and does what the Torah says. And this also fits to the fact that we had three אבות and four אמהות. Three fathers and four mothers. Bichlal we know the difference between a father and a mother, a man and a wife, is that the man is always considered a משפיע, the giver, and the wife is considered a מקבל, the receiver. So when we talk about the אבות and the אמהות, we see that we have three אבות and four אמהות. And that fits to what we said before, that the number three represents the ענין of השפעה or the giving, and the number four already represents the מקבל, the receiver, that he already received it in a way that it becomes his and he's able to use it.

And we see this concept also in the ענינים, the way the עולמות, the way the worlds are set up. And now we will get a little bit into the Kabbalah explanation of it. In Kabbalah we find that there are four עולמות. Generally speaking, there are four worlds. And the four worlds are called in Kabbalah, אצילות, בריאה, יצירה, and עשיה. עשיה is the lowest world, which is connected to this physical world as we have it in עולם הזה. And then you have the higher worlds, which are included in the three levels of אצילות, בריאה, יצירה. B'emet we find these four expressions in a פסוק. The פסוק says, כל הנקרא בשמי ולכבודי בראתיו יצרתיו אף עשיתיו. So in this פסוק we find the expression בראתיו, which means I created it, which is from the word בריאה. יצרתיו means I formed it, which is the word יצירה. אף עשיתיו, I also made it, that is the word עשיה. But before the word בראתיו, it says כל הנקרא בשמי ולכבודי. That refers to, as it says in Kabbalah, to the first level, which is the level called אצילות. This is also the explanation in the four expressions that we use in קידוש לבנה. We say ברוך עושך, ברוך יוצרך, ברוך בוראך, and ברוך קונך. So we also use these four expressions. Depends according to which נוסח, in which order we say it, but the four expressions refer to these four worlds. עושך is עשיה, יוצרך is יצירה, בוראך is בריאה, and קונך, that refers to עולם האצילות as it is explained in many ספרי קבלה. We also mention these four levels when we talk about the neshama coming down to this world. We say every morning in ברכות השחר: נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא, the neshama that you gave me is טהור, it's pure. אתה בראתה, אתה יצרתה, אתה נפחתה בי. You created it, you formed it, you blew it into me. So here too we mention these four things. First we say the neshama is טהורה היא, is pure. That is the neshama the way it's in the highest level which is called in the עולם האצילות. Then it comes down to the level called עולם הבריאה, that's אתה בראתה. Then it comes down to the level called עולם היצירה, אתה יצרתה. And then it comes down into עולם העשיה, into this physical world, and that's the expression אתה נפחתה בי, you blew it into me, into me meaning into the guf, the way the guf, the body, is in עולם העשיה. So when we talk about these four levels We also see the same thing. The first three levels, which is עולם האצילות, עולם הבריאה, and עולם היצירה, these are four spiritual levels, which are still ענינים רוחניים, עולמות רוחניים. They are spiritual worlds. The עולם העשיה, that is already a physical world. This is עולם הזה הגשמי. This is the one that's מקבל from all the spiritual levels. So here too, we see the difference between three and four. The first three, that is the משפיע. That is the spiritual levels which give the השפעה into this world. Then the fourth level, that is עולם הזה הגשמי. That is already the way the השפעה is נתקבל, is received by the מקבל, by the receiver. And that's also why bichlal we know that everything is made up of four levels, אש, רוח, מים, עפר. אש is fire, רוח is air, wind, מים is water, עפר is sand. As the Rambam explains in the beginning of the fourth פרק of Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah. And in Zohar and in Tikkunei Zohar, many times we learn that there are four elements, אש, רוח, מים, עפר. Nevertheless, in Sefer Yetzirah, in the holy Sefer Yetzirah, it only mentions three. It doesn't mention the fourth, because we have three and then the fourth, these are two separate categories. The three is a משפיע, and the fourth is a מקבל. And in Pardes it says in the Shaar HaMachria'im פרק ג, that the יסוד העפר is revealed through the first three יסודות. You have really three יסודות and they are מגלה the fourth one, the יסוד העפר. At any event, we see that the ענין of three is connected to the משפיע, and the ענין of four, that is already the מקבל. When we apply that to the ענין of מתן תורה, just like we said before, מתן תורה, the giving of the Torah, is the concept of השפעה. Hashem was משפיע תורה ומצות to the Bnei Yisrael. Then the Bnei Yisrael have to take the Torah and use the Torah, follow the Torah, work with the Torah, do in עבודת השם as it says in the Torah. So the ענין of מתן תורה is connected to the number three, and the number four represents the עבודה of the Bnei Yisrael. And that's the difference between the month of Sivan and the month of Tammuz. The month of Sivan, which is the חודש of Matan Torah, that is חודש השלישי, that is the third month. The month of Tammuz, which is the fourth month, the month that comes right after Matan Torah, that represents the concept of the Yidden serving Hashem, already doing in what Hashem wants us to do.

Now on one hand, it makes sense to say that when the השפעה is accepted by the receiver, it definitely is in a lower מדרגה than the way it's given. We could imagine that the Torah the way it's by Hashem is definitely in a higher level than as much as we are able to accept it. The truth is that in what we accept, what we receive, we have the complete Torah the way it is by Hashem. As the Arizal explains on the lashon of bentchen that we say, ועל תורתך שלימדתנו, and your Torah that you taught us. He says the pshat is that the one that we are taught, the Torah that we have, is תורתך, is your Torah, the Torah of Hashem. So in essence, the Torah that we take as מקבלים, as receivers, is the same Torah that Hashem gave us. But the גילוי in a revealed fashion, what we're able to grasp is definitely not the same level as the Torah that is given by Hashem, because we are only to grasp in a revealed way the חיצוניות, the outer part of the Torah. We can't grasp the עצם, the essence of the Torah the way it is by Hashem. After all, we are human beings. We are limited, so how can we with our limited כחות take the unlimited Torah of Hashem? So therefore, the way we take it, it's in a lower מדרגה. But on the other hand, when we take the Torah and we learn it and we do what the Torah wants us to do, we accomplish what Hashem had in mind when he gave the Torah, which means that the whole goal of Hashem giving the Torah, the purpose of his giving the Torah, is so that we should fulfill it. So it comes out that even though as far as level, the Torah is in a higher level the way it's in the mashpia, the way it's at the time of the giving, rather than the way it's in the mekabel, the way we receive it and the way we work with it and the way we use it, but still there is a big maalah in the number four and the way we are mekabel it because that is the goal. And just like it says, סוף מעשה במחשבה תחילה, that whatever comes out to the סוף מעשה, the bottom, to the end, to the action, that is actually מחשבה תחילה, that is the מחשבה in the beginning. That is the whole goal, and that is the highest level, so לגבי תורה is the same. The way the Torah is by Hashem, it's a very high level. That says, ואהיה אצלו אמון. The Torah says, \"I was, so to speak, nursed by Hashem. I was the toy of Hashem. ואהיה אצלו שעשועים יום יום.\" Hashem has pleasure from the Torah. So the Torah is the pleasure of Hashem, which means it's the essence of Hashem. So the Torah is in a very high madrega. Nevertheless, Hashem said He's giving the Torah down here, and when the malachim complained and they said they want the Torah to be given on שמים, תנה הודך על השמים, השם told Moshe Rabbeinu to answer them, and Moshe Rabbeinu's answer was that the Torah doesn't belong to them. The tachlit of the Torah is to be given down here into this world. So even though the Torah is given to this world, and it's covered up in a covering of gashmiyut, and the way we take the Torah, we take it in gashmiyut, nevertheless, when we take the Torah, and we do what the Torah says, we accomplish the רצון העליון, we do what Hashem want, what Hashem had in mind of the תורה לכתחילה all the way in the beginning. So it comes out that even though as far as spiritual level it seems it's lower, but it's higher because we accomplish the ratzon of Hashem. We reach the level of the true רצון what Hashem had in mind l'chatchila. And that is the מעלה of חודש תמוז over חודש סיון. On one hand, what חודש תמוז represents, the fourth month, the idea of מקבל is a lower מדרגה, but on the other hand, it's a yeridah letzorech aliyah. It's a yeridah, it's lower, but through the lower we get higher, because being this is what Hashem wanted, so that by doing this, we actually get connected to Hashem even higher than the way the Torah is before the Torah was given down here. And that's why actually Hashem gave the Torah down here, because only through the Bnei Yisrael doing what it says in the Torah, doing it b'maaseh in a גשמיותדיקע form, we connect ourselves to Hashem and the רצון of Hashem is fulfilled. And this is the מעלה of חודש תמוז, even over חודש סיון. Because חודש סיון represents Matan Torah, and חודש תמוז represents the inyan that comes after Matan Torah, the inyan that the Bnei Yisrael actually utilize the Torah, take the Torah, learn Torah, and do what the Torah wants them to do, and by doing that, we get united with a true יחוד נצחי, with a true eternal connection.