Posts by Julia Blum

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 […]

Hindsight The Festival of Purim is over, but the profound message of this prophetic book— Megilat Ester (the book of Esther)—is not over at all, so we will take some time today to continue pondering this message. Last time, we spoke about the fascinating story of “Purim Fest 1946”. We spoke of “the hidden prophecy” […]

My readers would know that one of the most important words in my writings is “hidden”. Today, as we enter Purim’s celebrations (especially joyful this year as it is the year of Israel’s 70th birthday), I am happy to write about the book of Esther, because there are a lot “hidden” themes in this prophetic […]

We already know that the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel serves not only as a wonderful literary transition to his second volume, Acts, but also as the spiritual key to the whole story of the hidden messiahship of Jesus—to understanding the restrained and the opened eyes in his Gospel. You will of course remember that […]

NOT A REGULAR GUEST After the two disciples constrained Jesus, “He went in to stay with them”. Then we read: Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him[1] First of all, let […]

We are continuing our journey through the transitional chapter of Luke’s Gospel – the journey on the Emmaus road, along with two sad disciples and the mysterious stranger who joined them on the way. We remember that their eyes were restrained and they did not recognize Jesus in this Stranger.  The story then goes on […]