| Mrs. Michal Horowitz is a Torah teacher whose shiurim reach audiences worldwide. She teaches weekly in her Five Towns, NY, community and lectures nationally and internationally. A longtime presenter for the OU Women's Initiative, she inaugurated the Torat Imecha Nach Yomi program. In September 2023, she was invited by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis to serve as the first female scholar to keynote the Annual Pre-Yamim Noraim Conference for the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. She is the author of Abled: Living With a Disability, a Torah View (Mosaica Press, 2025) and lives in Woodmere, NY, with her family. | | | Dvar Haftorah OU Women's Initiative Founding Director Rebbetzin Dr. Adina Shmidman | | | | | | When It Becomes Whole Again Malachi 3:4-24 | | | There is a pasuk from this week's Haftorah that we say every day::וְעָרְבָה לַה׳ מִנְחַת יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלָ͏ִם כִּימֵי עוֹלָם וּכְשָׁנִים קַדְמֹנִיּוֹתThen the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to Hashem, as in the days of old and former years. At the close of Shemoneh Esrei, the words come quickly—familiar, almost automatic. But when we slow down, a single word emerges: וְעָרְבָה—a word that captures the vision of avodat Hashem. We often translate וְעָרְבָה as "pleasing." But as Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch explains, the root ערב does not simply mean pleasant. It describes the bringing together of distinct elements into a unified whole. ערב is the meeting of opposites - day and night, light and dark—held together without losing their identity. It is not sameness; it is harmony. From this same root comes ערבות—the idea that individuals are bound to one another in shared responsibility. We are not separate parts, but interconnected pieces of a larger whole. The Haftorah closes with the prayer that Eliyahu HaNavi will restore hearts: וְהֵשִׁיב לֵב אָבוֹת עַל בָּנִים וְלֵב בָּנִים עַל אֲבוֹתָם - We ask not only that our avodah be accepted, but that it be integrated—that what we say and who we are begin to meet. When hearts begin to turn, when connection is restored, something within us comes back into alignment.וְעָרְבָה…May what we bring in our tefillah, in our relationships, in our lives be gathered, aligned, and whole, and in that wholeness, truly pleasant before Hashem. | | | As part of your weekly learning, join Torat Imecha Parsha with Mrs. Liat Mayerfeld. Register below to receive weekly recordings. | | | |
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