Posts by Julia Blum

Last time, we spoke about the very beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. This time, let us move to the beginning of Luke’s Gospel and try to see it through the Tanach and Jewish background. THE ANGEL AND THE PRIEST Have you ever been to Ein Karem, one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in Jersualem? Two thousand […]

Happy New Year, my dear readers! Most of us love new beginnings – and most of us enter a new year with some wonderful New Year resolutions. No doubt some of my readers have decided to read through the whole Bible during this year! Last year, we spent a lot of time talking about the […]

We have just finished the book of Genesis, my dear readers, and are about to enter book of Exodus – along with entering a new year of our lives. I am not going to continue with the Torah Portions’ comments on these pages -however, before we plunge into the new series next time, I would […]

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 […]