Joseph Shulam

The Bible passage I’m reflecting on here is from the portion of the Torah that starts with the word “Bo” (“Come to Pharaoh”). The biblical narrative in this portion of the Torah is probably one of the more dramatic and more influential of the whole biblical narrative—including all the way to the book of Revelation. […]

What is discipleship in the Bible? It’s a thread throughout both Old and New Testaments where teachers pass along their life and teachings to their disciples. The disciples are then meant to replicate the process in their own lives. From the parent-child relationship to the Moses-Joshua relationship to the Jesus-disciples relationship, discipleship is a theme […]

*Editor’s Note: Just days before, Jacob had been comfortably living at home, safe, and with his brother not actively wanting to kill him. But ever since Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of his dying father’s blessing, Jacob had been on the run. When Joseph Shulam became a follower of Jesus, he discovered what […]

The word rabbi means “my master” in Hebrew. A rabbi is a Jewish religious leader. Some rabbis lead congregations (synagogues), others are teachers, and yet others lead informally. Rabbinic ordination is known as semichah. Semichah is done by three other rabbis who are in good standing with the community. After examinations and tests, the three rabbis […]

I had my Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem, in the synagogue near my home in the south side of Jerusalem. We lived on Bethlehem Road and the synagogue was just a little distance from my home—in the same building that I started school on first grade. In my Bar Mitzvah, I read Leviticus 1:1-5:26. This portion […]