Posts by Julia Blum

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 […]

We  continue discussing the current Torah Portion. The second Parashat Shavua of the year is Noah: Genesis 6:9-11:32. WHAT’S IN A NAME? Noah was born and named before our today Portion begins – in Genesis 5 – however, since he is the main character of this Parashah, we will take time to understand the prophetic […]

The joy of Sukkot reaches its peak during Simchat Torah, the holiday that follows immediately after the festival of Sukkot and marks the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah reading, and the beginning of a new cycle. Last year, we spoke about the first Torah portion, Bereishit (In the Beginning), but the cycle begins […]

Sukkot is a weeklong celebration,  therefore it offers a wonderful opportunity to discuss different aspects of this amazing prophetic Feast. Today, we are going to talk about that Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus came to celebrate in Jerusalem almost 2000 years ago, and to learn a few new things about Sukkot along the way. USHPIZIN […]

THE JOY OF RENEWED FELLOWSHIP   As my readers probably know, the number 7 has always been regarded by the interpreters and commentators of the Torah, as the number of completeness. Therefore, the seventh month of the year, Tishrei, is indeed a very important month in God’s sacred calendar. It is full of the special […]

TWO GOATS We are approaching the most holy day in the Biblical calendar – Yom Kippur.  The solemn ritual of this day in Biblical times is described in Leviticus 16, and as Charles Feinberg wrote, “…no more significant truths could possibly engage the mind of the believer than those set forth in this chapter of […]