Anyone who bases their life on firm values – whether in feminism or religion – is familiar with the tension between a beautiful ideal and the complexities of implementing it in everyday life.

The month of Tammuz begins a spiritually intense and emotionally charged time in the Jewish calendar. While the secular world enjoys the warmth of summer, Jewish tradition draws our attention to a different kind of heat—the burning memory of destruction, uprooting, and the long road of return. Tammuz ushers in the "Three Weeks,"