Posts by Julia Blum

To the Jew first … My dear readers, for a few weeks we are back to our journey through the book of Acts.  From the book itself, we know that it was a regular  custom of Apostle Paul to attend synagogue every Shabbat.  Even though Paul’s apostolic mission was to reach the Gentiles with the […]

It’s Purim time – and of course, we will speak about Purim today. Almost everywhere, the festival of Purim is celebrated on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar. This year, in most places Purim began on Wednesday evening, March 16 and will continue through Thursday, March 17. In Jerusalem, however, Purim will begin […]

Little Aleph For the last two weeks, we have been watching the people of Israel building the Tabernacle. This sanctuary was to accompany the Jewish people throughout their long journey in the wilderness and was to be set up in the Land of Israel when they eventually arrived there. Finally, in the very last chapter […]

Last time, we saw the people of Israel bringing excessively bountiful donations for the building of the Tabernacle. As one of the Midrashim says, “they came both men and women; that is to say, in their eagerness they pressed against each other. The men and women came as a huge throng when they brought their […]

Shabbat Shekalim Dear friends, since we have already paused our Acts series, I decided to extend this pause to have a look at the current Torah portions. There are several reasons for that: First, the chapters we are now reading discuss the building of the Tabernacle, and the importance of the tabernacle in Scripture is […]

  You have hidden their heart from understanding… You will not exalt them. Job 17:4   Now also many nations have gathered against you, who say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion.” But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD, nor do they understand His counsel… Mic. 4:11-12 […]

A few weeks ago, there was a question in the comments: “How would you describe, ‘what went wrong’ between Jews and Christians? There were many historical events, but what do you see as the most fundamental ‘flaw’ that resulted in such separation between the two?” Probably, everyone would agree that this is a very serious […]

The Lessons of the Transitional Chapter My dear friends, you probably expect me to move to Acts 15, to Jerusalem council – and of course, we will be there soon. However, I would like to say a few more words on chapter 13; after all, this is a crucial chapter, the transitional chapter,  opening the […]

We all know the words of Jesus to his disciples at the beginning of Acts:  they should be his “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”[1]. Accordingly, the book of Acts can be divided into two parts.  The first, chapters 1–12, describe the events that take place […]

My dear readers, as we continue our journey through the book of Acts I would like to remind you that my goal here is not to write another series of comments – tons of books have already been written on Acts – but just to bring to your attention the details that can be understood […]