Posts by Julia Blum

The Narrative We will pause our Beginning series this week, because Purim is approaching and we will talk about book of Esther today. Yes, there is a wonderful narrative here   that we all love to read and to hear – but there is so much more to this book! I believe that Esther is one […]

  My dear readers, I thought we were ready to move on to the third chapter of Genesis – but I’ve realized that there are still many amazing nuances to be gleaned from chapter two that we haven’t discussed yet. Therefore, we will continue today in this incredible chapter (hopefully moving to chapter three next week).  […]

And He called From our discussion of Genesis 1, we know that God’s word was the central part of the whole creative process – and the verb VaYikra (and He called) reflects that. God gave names to what He created, and by doing that He called them into existence. God called the light Day, and […]

The Literary Bridge  As we saw last time, Genesis 2:4 is the opening verse of the second account of Creation: it begins the second “story of heaven and earth when God created earth and heaven”. This verse is very interesting for several reasons: first of all, it occurs several times in the Torah, opening some […]

Two Accounts There is no secret that there are two different accounts of creation in Scripture: in Genesis chapter 1 and in Genesis chapter 2. So far, we have discussed the first account (it took us a month, and we only touched the surface of this truly bottomless chapter – Genesis 1). Today, we will […]

“Peru U’revu”    As promised, in this post we will have the answer regarding the sixth day. Before we do that however, we will contemplate a famous blessing that God gave to the first couple: “Peru U’revu”  – “be fruitful and multiply”.  We read in Genesis 1:28: “God blessed them and God said to them, […]

Image and Shadow We all know that “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him.” But what does this mean? These words have produced endless commentaries over the centuries. Clearly, we are not created in the physical image of God, because Judaism steadfastly maintains that God has no […]

Breaking the Pattern   Last time we saw the ascent of the cosmic drama in Genesis 1, culminating in the creation of man. Who is this special creature? Along with the Scriptures, we wonder over him and his absolutely special status in creation; along with the Scriptures, we can ask: When I consider Your heavens, the […]

As we advance with the days of this year, we are also advancing with the days of Bereishit  and continuing to watch in awe God’s work of creation. Today, first of all let us consider different verbs that describe His work during these days. VaYomer – and He said And God said: “Let there be […]

TL;DR This blog post begins a series exploring the first eleven chapters of Genesis, highlighting how reading the original Hebrew text reveals deeper meanings about creation and humanity’s origins. The New Year is always a time of new resolutions, new decisions – and of course, new beginnings. Therefore, it seems only natural for us to […]