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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.
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Dvar Haftorah
OU Women's Initiative
Founding Director
Rebbetzin Dr.
Adina Shmidman
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The Foundation and the Future
Yeshaya 54:11-55:5
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Yeshayahu paints a breathtaking vision of Yerushalayim’s future. He begins with its foundation: “וִיסַדְתִּיךְ בַּסַּפִּירִים, I will lay your foundations with sapphires. From there, the city slowly takes shape. Its windows, its gates, and its borders are fashioned from precious stones. Every detail reflects beauty, permanence, and glory.
Then, just as the construction seems complete, the Navi introduces an entirely different image: וְכָל בָּנַיִךְ לִמּוּדֵי ה’, וְרַב שְׁלוֹם בָּנָיִ All your children will be disciples of Hashem, and great will be the peace of your children.
At first glance, it feels like a change of subject. We have moved from architecture to education. But Chazal hear something deeper. On the words “וכל בניך,” they comment: “אַל תִּקְרֵי בָּנַיִךְ אֶלָּא בּוֹנַיִךְ”—“Do not read ‘your children,’ but ‘your builders.’”
The Navi is not leaving the image of construction behind; he is completing it. Hashem lays the sapphire foundations and raises the city’s walls, but the building of Yerushalayim does not end when the last stone is set in place. A city is never completed by its buildings alone. Its future rests with its בניך, its children.
The precious stones provide Yerushalayim’s physical foundation. Its children become its living builders. They are the ones who will fill the city with Torah, shape its character, and ensure that the redemption endures from one generation to the next. The stones establish the city, but the children give it life.
The Haftorah reminds us that redemption is not a single moment in history. It is a process that continues in every generation. Hashem lays the foundation, but He entrusts the future to His people. The city is built first with precious stones, and then with precious souls.
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