Michael Freund

Dvar Haftorah - Parashat Ki Teitze

The answer to destruction

Isaiah’s message was one of consolation, but also of responsibility.

Parashat Ki Teitze:

When peace breeds complacency

The Torah's lesson is one Israel learned tragically on October 7: Do not mistake quiet for a permanent change in the intentions of those who wish us harm.

Dvar Haftorah for Shoftim:

The Haftorah we sing every Friday night

We are expected to rise, to rebuild and to act.

Parashat Shoftim:

The Torah’s command not to fear

Our generation has been given something Jews prayed for over the course of centuries: the ability to defend ourselves in our own land.

Dvar Haftorah - Parashat Re’eh:

The assault that changes its form

For generations, some tried to frighten Jews away from their faith. Others tried to argue them out of it. The Malbim finds the strength to prevail prophesied in this week's Haftorah.

Parashat Re'eh:

When miracles prove nothing

The test comes when falsehood is persuasive, when it is wrapped in emotion, reinforced by success and presented by someone who appears impossible to dismiss.

Dvar Haftorah for Parashat Ekev:

The prophecy that awaits every Jew

The renewal of the Land mirrors the renewal of the nation.

Parashat Eikev:

The danger of success

Parshat Eikev reminds us that humility is not the enemy of achievement but its proper companion.

Parashat Va'etchanan

The discipline of knowing

The first territory a Jew must defend in a crisis is his own consciousness.

Dvar Haftorah for Shabbat Nachamu:

The illusion of human power

Great powers compete for influence, and commentators confidently predict how history will unfold. But the Jewish people have heard such predictions before.

Shabbat Chazon: Dvar Haftorah

The vision of a redeemed Zion

As we prepare to sit on the floor on Tisha B’Av and mourn the destruction of Jerusalem, we should not view the day merely as a commemoration of ancient tragedy. It is also a summons to action.

Dvar Torah Parshat Devarim

The Torah’s case for the Golan Heights

Long before talking heads on television debated who belongs where, G-d entrusted the Golan and Bashan to the people of Israel.

Dvar Haftorah for Parshiyot Mattot-Masei:

When we forget our first love

Repentance is not merely about correcting mistakes. It is about rediscovering the love that once defined our relationship with our Creator.

Parshiyot Mattot-Masei:

The journey Is the mission

Life is a journey, but Judaism insists that it must also have a destination.

Torah and Haftora for Parashat Pinchas:

Longing for the land; A prophet for difficult times

The daughters of Tzelophchad and the mission of Jeremiah.

Dvar Haftorah Parashat Balak:

What G-d wants from us

Not slogans. Not gestures. Not hollow religiosity. But a life rooted in moral seriousness, compassion and humility before Heaven. It is written plain and clear.

Dvar Haftora Chukat (Israel):

The original “Stolen Land" accusation

The modern State of Israel did not create the Jewish connection to the land. It restored Jewish sovereignty in the birthplace of Jewish civilization. A similar argument is made to the Ammonites in the Haftorah.

Parashat Chukat (Israel):

When complaining becomes a Way of Life

After years of experiencing miracles, they had stopped noticing them.

Parashat Korach: (Israel)

Korach would have loved social media

Human beings possess a remarkable ability to convince themselves that selfish motives are actually noble ones.

Dvar Haftorah Parashat Korach: (Israel)

A standard for leadership

Moses, Aaron and Samuel neither sought power nor exploited it. They served the people with humility and sacrifice.

Dvar Haftorah Parashat Shlach (Diaspora):

The Land awaits its children

The struggle over Eretz Yisrael has never been solely a military or political contest. At its core, it is a test of faith, vision and national purpose.

Behaalotcha (Diaspora)

The danger of getting what you want

Human beings have always had a remarkable ability to romanticize what they once desperately wanted to escape.

Shlach (Israel):

The sin of speaking ill of the Land

Standing before the same landscape, the spies and Joshua and Caleb reached opposite conclusions. The results were not long in coming.

For Israel:

Dvar Haftarat Behaalotcha: The courage to see beyond the present

Can we continue building when progress seems slow? Can we keep lighting the Menorah even when the room still feels dark?

For the Diaspora: Dvar Haftorah Naso

The blessing of bearing one another

The Haftorah reminds us that redemption does not begin with spectacle. It begins quietly, often unexpectedly, when ordinary people accept extraordinary responsibility.

For the Diaspora: Parashat Naso

The power of repetition

The balance between continuity and individuality is one of Judaism’s great achievements and it comes to the fore in the parasha.

Dvar Haftorah for Shavuot:

“The heavens were opened"

When heaven touches earth.

Shavuot:

From Sinai to Zion

Sinai was the beginning. But Zion was always the destination.

Dvar Haftorah for Bamidbar/ Machar Chodesh:

From David’s tears to Jerusalem’s joy

Like the moon, which wanes before it is renewed, the nation of Israel endured periods of concealment and decline but always held fast to the belief that restoration would come.

Yom Yerushalayim and Parshat Bamidbar:

When the Israeli flag returned to the Temple Mount

The return to Jerusalem in 1967 marked not only a military triumph but a stage in the ongoing restoration of Jewish sovereignty in our ancestral land. And perhaps that is the deeper lesson of Parshat Bamidbar for our time.

Behar-Bechukotai:

Walking the Land, living the Covenant

Eretz Yisrael is more than a place on the map. It is a crucible in which the Jewish people are called upon to refine their identity and fulfill their mission.

Dvar Haftorah: Behar-Bechukotai

Returning to ourselves

This week's haftorah is a profound statement about resilience, about the ability to endure and even thrive amid adversity when one’s foundations are properly rooted.

Dvar Haftorah - Parashat Emor

Making holiness a mindset

“And they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane and cause them to discern between the impure and the pure" (Ezekiel 44:23).

Dvar Haftorah: Acharei Mot/ Kedoshim

The promise of permanence

Could it be that what we commemorate on Yom Haatzma'ut is not merely a political milestone, but the unfolding of a prophetic promise?

Dvar Haftorah - Shabbat Rosh Chodesh:

At the threshold of renewal

Shabbat Rosh Chodesh is more than a calendrical coincidence, it is an opportunity.

Dvar Haftorah Parashat Shemini:

When faith forgets its boundaries

While we aspire to draw closer to G-d, we must do so on His terms, not our own.

Dvar Haftorah - First Day of Pesach

From manna to meaning

The Haftorah reminds us that the miracles of the past were only the beginning. What comes next is our responsibility.

Dvar Haftorah: Shabbat Hagadol

Before the door opens

It is precisely at the threshold between message and moment, that this special Haftorah’s relevance to our own time becomes unmistakable.

When Sunni Muslims pray for Israel

Sometimes diplomacy doesn’t begin with treaties or official visits. Opiniion.

Dvar Haftorah

Fear not, O Israel

The covenant endures. The Jewish people may face criticism and reproach, but they are never abandoned.

Dvar Haftorah: Parashat Hachodesh

A time to cleanse and begin again

Every national future must rest on something deeper than power alone.

Dvar Haftorah

Purification by fire: the Red Heifer and Iran

Like the ashes of the red heifer, the destruction of Iran’s instruments of death can become the catalyst for cleansing.

Dvar Haftorah:

The price of misplaced mercy

There are moments in Jewish history when compassion becomes cruelty.

Dvar Haftorah:

A house we still yearn to build

We did not simply remember the Temple. We organized our civilization around its absence.

Dvar Haftorah for Mishpatim:

Sacred missions require clean hands

Parshat Shekalim itself revolves around the half-shekel - a modest, equal contribution required of every individual, rich and poor alike, toward the communal service.

Dvar Haftorah

Be careful what you say about Israel

G-d will tolerate many things from His servants. Becoming a prosecutor of Israel is not one of them.

Dvar Haftorah:

Army service: for some or for all?

The Prophetess Devora asks the tribes who did not join the fight against Sisera's forces when Israel was under threat, where were you? This is the question that many in Israel must now confront honestly. And it has nothing to do with the fact that the Israelites won without those tribes.

Dvar Haftorah:

“Do not fear, my servant Jacob"

Jewish existence is not sustained by circumstance, but by promise.

Dvar Haftorah for Shemot:

The great Shofar and lost Jews

We live in an age of unprecedented Jewish freedom and unprecedented Jewish disappearance. The Haftorah tells us that those who have disappeared are not lost forever.

Dvar Haftorah:

King David's parting message

There is profound humility in King David’s words. For all his achievements, he frames his legacy not around military victories or political triumphs, but around covenant.

Dvar Haftorah:

Our shared past and future

The prophet clarifies: Unity demands shared purpose, honest self-examination and recommitment to what binds us together.

Dvar Haftorah:

On Hanukkah and Sydney

The prophet does not deny the danger. He transcends it.

Dvar Haftorah

When the lion roars

The Parsha shows us how individuals can go astray, The Haftorah shows us how nations do.

Dvar Haftorah:

The return of the Bnei Anousim (Marranos)

Their return is happening now. It is not accidental. It is not demographic or sociological. It is prophetic. And with prophecy comes responsibility.

Hundreds of 'Lost Tribe' Bnei Menashe Jews make Aliyah

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10 Indian-Jewish ‘lost tribe’ couples remarried in Israel

Ten Indian-Jewish couples from the Bnei Menashe “lost tribe” marry in a Jewish ceremony at an absorption center in northern Israel.

Watch: Bnei Menashe recite Shema for first time in Israel

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Bnei Menashe gather in India to celebrate Hanukkah

Thousand of Bnei Menashe in India gather to celebrate Hanukkah

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