Today is the 30th day of the Jewish month of Sivan, considered Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, the beginning of the month of Tammuz. Ironically, the month shares its name with a Sumerian agricultural god, Dumuzi.
According to one Sumerian legend, Dumuzi’s wife, the goddess Ishtar, searches the underworld for Dumuzi after his ignoble death, only to return to the earth and discover that he was not mourning for her. She then banishes him to the underworld for six months out of each year—the summer season when rain ceases and green plants die in the ancient Near East.
The Hebrew Bible is familiar with worship of Tammuz and mentions the god in the Book of Ezekiel. When God speaks to Ezekiel of the crimes of the Israelites, God brings the prophet to a house of God in the northern kingdom, where the prophet discovers “women sitting, weeping over the Tammuz,” (Ezekiel 8:14). Their tears may have symbolized the raindrops the Israelites so desperately needed in the midst of a record summer, or they may have represented offerings to the god of agriculture.
We Californians now find ourselves in a similar plight as our ancestors, weeping for water in the midst of an historic drought with no end in sight. And, like our ancestors, many among us cling to the old gods who cannot save us from thirst, looking to old, politically viable models of change to respond to the worsening water crisis, ranging from complete denial to temporary usage restrictions. However, like our ancestors, we must acknowledge that perhaps, like our forebears’ gods, these models are not quite up to the task. We must face the realities that climate change and population density has brought to the Southwest.
Californians cannot continue to treat the water crisis as a temporary situation that can be managed through water conservation restrictions. If we do not make innovative, large-scale, long-term changes to our commercial and residential water usage habits, as well as our water infrastructure, the water crisis will threaten the very future of our state.
To begin learning more about the water crisis and how we can build a wetter future for California, please visit California Drought Action, Food and Water Watch, and Solve the Water Crisis, a coalition crafted between water agencies, agricultural businesses, and educators.
—Rabbi Josh Knobel