Posts by Julia Blum

In my last post, I promised to show you in the Scriptures the reconciliation of Abraham’s two sons. I suppose you know as well as I do that there is no scene in the Torah describing explicitly the reconciliation of Isaac and Ishmael (unlike the reconciliation of Jacob and Esau, for instance, or Joseph and […]

Entering the Mystery Last time, I promised to talk about the special Rosh Hashanah Torah reading. But before we do that, I would like to say just a few words about the Torah Portion that precedes the Rosh Hashanah reading. We read this portion last Shabbat, and this portion is always read on the Shabbat […]

Two New Years Shalom and Chag Sameach, dear friends! The High Holy Days are almost here; in Israel, we are entering a season called Chagim: Feasts, or Holidays, and as always, we will pause our current series in order to look at these special days. We  will continue our discussion of the book of Acts […]

By now, we know what Peter revealed: the great mystery of the Gospel, the secret things that Father has hidden …from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes, is the messiahship of Jesus. In Luke’s Gospel, this secret is hidden and concealed from Israel; in Acts, Peter is sharing this secret with all the […]

My dear readers, you all know by now that Pentecost and Shavuot are two different names for the same Festival.  Last time, we spoke about Revelation being the main theme of Shavuot in Jewish tradition. That means that some hidden things were revealed on that Pentecost/Shavuot day in Jerusalem that Acts 2 tells us about: […]

When the Day of Pentecost had come “The voice went out and was divided into seven voices and from seven voices into seventy tongues, so that all the nations will hear. And every nation heard the voice in its own tongue and was amazed.”  Sounds familiar doesn’t it? And yet, it is not a beginning of […]

To the Ends of the Earth A few weeks ago, when I started this series and analyzed the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, comparing it with the first chapter of Acts, I wrote: “You might be thinking that the ‘Jewishness’ of Acts 1 is less obvious than the ‘Jewishness’ of Luke 1 – if so, […]

Last time, we discussed the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel. As you know, the two volumes of Luke (the Gospel and the Acts) have a lot in common. Among many other similarities, there is a peculiar resemblance in the structure, especially in the beginning: in both volumes, the main “opening” event happens only in the […]

Recalculating Today I am starting something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. For a very long time, I have wanted to go through the Book of Acts together with my readers. Too often, this particular book is perceived as a demarcation line, as a declaration of separation from anything Jewish. Something has […]

Those who have been following this blog for some time would know already that I am very attentive and sensitive to all the “coincidences”, especially when it comes to timing. That’s why the fact that this post – the final post of the Joseph series – is published just a few days before Tisha B’Av, […]