Posts by Julia Blum

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 […]

Ever since the last post I’ve been contemplating this amazing “second revelation” that we see in the very beginning of Torah Portion Va’era, in Exodus 6. There are some crucially important details in this revelation, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I couldn’t and shouldn’t just skip them. So, […]

More than just a Name I suppose, most of my readers have watched “The Lord of the Rings”; maybe some even love the book, as I do. Today, however, I actually want to refer to the movie. You might remember how we all were waiting for the second part after seeing the first one? Then […]

In our Torah reading, we just finished the book of Genesis and are now entering the book of Exodus – entering, at the same time, a new year in our lives. I usually start a new series after the New Year – it always seemed a proper beginning for this time of new beginnings. However, […]

My dear readers, I’ve been writing this blog for almost five years now, so this is the fifth time I am entering a new year together with you.  It’s interesting that even though in the previous years, I have written the “New Year” posts: ENTERING 2017 FROM JERUSALEM, ENTERING 2018 FROM JERUSALEM, ENTERING 2019 FROM […]