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Jerusalem Rosh Hashana 6a

דא"ר חנינה שמות חדשים עלו בידם מבבל
R'Hanina said: the names of the Months were brought with them from Babylon

The Gemmorah explains the process of adopting the Babylonian names instead of Biblical ones. The WIKI on Babylonian_calendar states that although every month is associated with a deity, Tammuz specifically bears the name of their god.

WIKI also says that the name of the god was widely known (and even worshipped) by the Israelites:

The cult of Ishtar and Tammuz may have been introduced to the Kingdom of Judah during the reign of King Manasseh and the Old Testament contains numerous allusions to them. Ezekiel 8:14 mentions Tammuz by name: "Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. ..."

Ezekiel's testimony is the only direct mention of Tammuz in the Hebrew Bible, but the cult of Tammuz may also be alluded to in Isaiah 17:10–11:

What are the potential Halachical problems and does anyone deal with that?

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Al Berko
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    Possible duplicate of Origin of the name TAMMUZ – יהושע ק Aug 22 '19 at 08:04
  • I was gonna delete it as a duplicate but msh210 doesn't let me add my sources to the original question. – Al Berko Aug 22 '19 at 08:37
  • The problem is even with the additional sources I don't see how the answer would be any different, @Al. – יהושע ק Aug 22 '19 at 08:42
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    @JoshK Right, but the quality of the question would be much better. Isn't it what we al demand? – Al Berko Aug 22 '19 at 08:56
  • וַיָּבֵ֣א אֹתִ֗י אֶל־פֶּ֙תַח֙ שַׁ֣עַר בֵּית־יְהֹוָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֖ר אֶל־הַצָּפ֑וֹנָה וְהִנֵּה־שָׁם֙ הַנָּשִׁ֣ים יֹשְׁב֔וֹת מְבַכּ֖וֹת אֶת־הַתַּמּֽוּז׃ – Alaychem goes to Codidact Aug 22 '19 at 08:57
  • This is indeed true, @Al. Maybe mark as a "community" post? There must be a way to improve upon am existing question. Bring it up on meta if there's no other way – יהושע ק Aug 22 '19 at 09:09
  • @AlBerko This gives credit and validity to the Torah because the rabbis were not afraid to admit that they adopted a few Babylonian names. Thus, we can accept them when they say, for example, not to believe in Jesus. – Turk Hill Aug 23 '19 at 18:26
  • Out of interest, does anyone suggest the answer is that the word Tammuz came first and worship came later? – Rabbi Kaii May 09 '23 at 20:11
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    @TurkHill We have Biblical serial numbers for weekdays and months. Nothing necessitates adopting foreign practices. But because they admit that they did, I suppose, they adopted the whole of the Babylonian calendar including the calculations, thus suggesting that there was no established Biblical calendar prior to the Exile. – Al Berko May 11 '23 at 10:37
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    @RabbiKaii No, because the tradition to use the names of deities for months was well established in many civilizations, like ours (Greeko-Roman), for example, August, July, and more. When the names were adopted, Tammuz was already a deity. – Al Berko May 11 '23 at 10:39
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    @AlBerko what I mean is, for example, Tammuz is the name of an angel, and then later it was worshipped as a diety and later we made a calendar and Tammuz was the relevant angel of the month etc. Therefore who cares if it was at some point a diety. The moon was worshipped but we still include it in a lot of our holy service – Rabbi Kaii May 11 '23 at 11:11
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    @AlBerko I agree that many well-established names for the months in English derive from (Greeko-Roman) mythology. – Turk Hill May 11 '23 at 15:08

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שמות כג יב

וּבְכֹ֛ל אֲשֶׁר־אָמַ֥רְתִּי אֲלֵיכֶ֖ם תִּשָּׁמֵ֑רוּ וְשֵׁ֨ם אֱלֹהִ֤ים אֲחֵרִים֙ לֹ֣א תַזְכִּ֔ירוּ לֹ֥א יִשָּׁמַ֖ע עַל־פִּֽיךָ׃

Be on guard concerning all that I have told you. Make no mention of the names of other gods; they shall not be heard on your lips.

Alaychem goes to Codidact
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