Posts by Julia Blum

There was a question in one of the comments on my last post. The lady quoted her pastor who had written: “There is a fickleness to the crowd which proclaims ‘Hosanna!’ one day and is screaming ‘Crucify him!’ a week later,” and then she asked me: “Do you agree with this view? Is it the […]

My dear readers, I am facing a real challenge this week. The reading for the last week consisted of two Torah Portions, therefore I was supposed to comment on two Parashot, and not one.   I did not have enough space for the second one, though, and therefore, the last Portion of Exodus is yet to […]

Shabbat The first thing that Moses did at the beginning of this Portion after he had assembled all the congregation of the Israelites, was to remind the people to keep Sabbath. “Moses assembled all the congregation of the Israelites and said to them: These are the things that the Lord has commanded you to do: Six days shall […]

Today, we are going to speak about one of the richest portions in the Torah – Ki Tissa. There is an amazing story in this portion about how God “changed His mind” – or did He? You can read my book “As though hiding His face” for this story. However, there are many other amazing […]

Since my last post was about Purim, we missed Trumah Torah Portion. Therefore, I’ll comment on two Torah portions today – Trumah and Tetzaveh. It is not difficult to combine them, since both portions contain God’s instructions to Moses concerning the Tabernacle which was to be erected, the priesthood, which was to serve in it, […]

After These Events My dear readers, I have been leading this blog for almost 5 years now, and that means that I am writing an article about Purim here for the fifth time. In previous years I spoke about many different things and told you many different stories related to Purim (here are the links […]

Malach Panav The Torah Portion Mishpatim (Ex. 21:1 –Ex. 24:18) seems to be all about laws and rulings (its very title, mishpatim, actually means “laws”). However, at the end of all these laws and rulings, we find an intriguing sentence: “Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to […]

I remember clearly how surprised and even disappointed I was when I realized, for the first time ever, that such a huge event as the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai was included into Torah Portion Yitro, named after Moses father-in-law. Wouldn’t you expect some big words for the title of this Portion, or […]

God Never Says Oops! Since I have never before written comments on Exodus Torah Portions on these pages, I am now overwhelmed with all the Hebrew insights that I can share with you, my dear readers. I have to choose some, hoping that in the years to come I will be able to share more. […]

Come Here! I have written several times here that any unusual textual detail in Scripture is an invitation to delve more deeply. What is unusual about the beginning of this portion – something that we don’t see in translations, but see very clearly in Hebrew? Those of my readers who know some Hebrew might be […]