Posts by Julia Blum

BACK IN CANAAN   We are back to our biblical portrait – but before we arrive at that scene and the speech of Judah that not only precedes, but actually causes Joseph’s revelation, we need to stop for a moment in Canaan. We will pick up this story exactly where we left off—we left the […]

My dear readers, even though we still have one installment left for Judah, I have to pause my biblical drawing and to say a few words about Festival of Shavuot which we will be celebrating in a couple days. We will complete Judah’s biblical portrait in the next post.   Shavuot in the Torah 15 ‘And […]

My dear readers, together we have witnessed the profound inner transformation that Judah went through in chapter 38, in his story with Tamar. Why was it important for us to see this transformation? The Torah wants to make sure we know that the Judah who comes to Egypt and talks to Joseph, is not the […]

THE HIDDEN MESSAGE Finally we are entering the most interesting part of the story, the “action” of the story, which according to the text happens “a long time afterward”—a long time after the events we discussed in the previous part. We read that a long time afterward”, “the daughter of Shua, Judah’s wife, died” – […]

We continue drawing our biblical portrait—continue watching Judah on these pages. We have seen that, by placing the story immediately after the sale of Joseph, the Torah lets us know that the stories are connected. Before a reader delves into Joseph’s saga and follows the transformation of Joseph’s character, Scripture shows us the transformation of […]

WHY JUDAH? Very soon, the state of Israel will celebrate the 70th birthday (the Independence Day in Israel is always celebrated according to the Jewish calendar, and this year it will be celebrated very early, on April  18- 19th). Originally I had planned to write something special about the State of Israel in this post, […]

The Jews around the world are still in the middle of that weeklong celebration that has come to be known as Pesach, or Passover—both in the common language and in the liturgy. However, there is some confusion regarding the Passover and its biblical meaning, and today I would like to address this confusion. This might shed […]

  We are continuing our journey through the Torah readings of this special Passover season. Of course, there is a special reading for the Passover—as you can imagine it’s Exodus 12, the story of Exodus. From the New Testament account, we know that Jesus had already been crucified and buried, but where did his disciples […]

WHAT TORAH PORTION DID JESUS LISTEN TO? Today, in most synagogues, the weekly Torah readings follow an annual cycle in which the Five Books of Moses are read in one year. However, another reading cycle existed in the Land at the time of Jesus: the so-called “triennial” cycle that lasted approximately three years. Unfortunately, we […]

In this new series, I want to show my readers the profound connection between Jesus’ teaching and the Torah Portions that were read in synagogues. Before I do that, however, I need to provide some background information.   EARLY SYNAGOGUES By the first century, synagogues already existed in many places in the Land. We don’t […]