Posts by Julia Blum

I know, some  of my readers would smile skeptically at this title: the statement that “Christmas is a pagan holiday” is so popular nowadays that many people prefer to have nothing to do with Christmas – and definitely, would not expect an article about Christmas on Israel Biblical studies blog. Yes, there is nothing to […]

TWO LINES When we read the Bible in English, the whole story of the brothers returning to Joseph after Benjamin’s “theft” – their speech, their repentance, and then Joseph revealing his identity – seems like one uninterrupted story. Not so in Hebrew, however. The Hebrew Torah, along with chapter divisions, also has divisions into Torah […]

TWO YEARS OF DAYS At the beginning of our Torah Portion we read: at the end of two full years Pharaoh dreamed.[1] There is a slight difference when read it in Hebrew: MiKetz Shnataim Yamim (מִקֵּץ שְׁנָתַיִם יָמִים) – at the end of “two years of days”. The word yamim – days – doesn’t occur […]

JACOB “SAT” IN THE LAND The last part of the book of Genesis—Joseph’s saga—begins in our new Torah Portion. It opens with the word Vayeshev (hence the name of the Portion), usually translated as “settled”, or “dwelt”:  “Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan.”[1]  The contrast between […]

 THE CROOKED SHALL BE STRAIGHT Twenty years have passed since Jacob deceived his brother Esau and had to flee from his wrath. For twenty years, he had stayed outside the Land. The time has come to go home. As Jacob prepares to meet Esau, he encounters God! A mysterious man (ish) wrestles with him through […]

FIRST UP, THEN DOWN In our last Torah Portion, Isaac sent Jacob to Paddan-aram, to take a wife from there. We all know that it happened after the story of the “stolen blessing” – the blessing that Jacob received from Isaac while pretending to be Esau – and that Jacob was actually fleeing from his […]

GODLY HUSBAND Our Torah Portion starts in Genesis 25. By the end of the previous chapter, Isaac and Rebecca   met,  and  we all  witnessed  this amazing transformation, how the story of faith became the story of love: Then Isaac … took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her (יֶּאֱהָבֶ֑הָ). Genesis 25 tells […]

My dear readers, in the beginning I was uncertain when publishing the article about the first Torah Portion of the year. There are so many sites with Parashat Shavua commentaries,  I thought,  do my readers really need another one? However, the interest in these articles has been very encouraging, so we’ll keep discussing Parashat Shavua, […]

FROM ANNUNCIATION TO SACRIFICE Torah Portion Vayera (“And He Appeared”, Gen.18:1-22:24) would be of special interest to the New Testament’ readers because the structure of this portion, in a sense, is similar to the structure of the Gospels (in particular, the Gospel of Luke): this Portion starts with the Divine Annunciation of the miraculous birth […]

GOD’S NAVIGATOR The famous chapter 12 of the book of Genesis, where our today’s Portion starts, opens with God’s words to Abraham:   Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great […]