The Parasha with Rabbi Dweck

When one door closes, we often stare at it so long that we miss the ones that have opened, and when many doors are open, we hesitate to walk through any of them for fear of needing to close some.

Vayera and its Haftara show us, through Abraham, Sarah, Lot, the widow and the woman of Shunem, that a real life means closing some doors so that we can walk through the one G-d is holding open for us.

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There are only two options when it comes to God: either He is God, or you are, and the entire haftara of Lekh Lekha is built on that one foundational truth.

He reveals Himself here not just as the first cause but as the necessary being upon which all things rely, the very discovery that Abraham pursued relentlessly from the age of three until he finally came to know his Creator.

And His promise to us, as the children of Abraham, is that when we stop holding ourselves up by our own bootstraps and open ourselves to that truth, we will always find a new source of strength, because He holds the ends of the earth and will walk us through every limit we think we have reached.

The Haftara for Parashat Noah (Isaiah 54-55) explores God's promise to Israel through the image of the waters of Noah, and the covenant that endures even when the mountains crumble.

The haftara's language of abandonment, widowhood, return, and covenant becomes a meditation on suffering, meaning, Jewish perseverance, and the possibility of emerging from hardship with deeper compassion, wisdom, and life.

The haftara for Bereshit from Isaiah 42 opens by affirming God as Creator and then describes Israel as a covenant people meant to be a light to the nations, yet “blind” and “deaf,” alongside God’s promise to lead them from darkness to light, remember them, and redeem them.

Rabbi Dweck has held rabbinic leadership roles in the US and the UK. He is the Rosh Bet Midrash of TheHabura.com and the Rabbi Levy Chair of Jewish Wisdom at the London School of Jewish Studies.For more, check out rabbijosephdweck.com.

Before Moshe Rabbenu dies, he leaves us a poem, not a set of instructions. He calls the very heavens and earth to witness it, bringing us back to the same shamayim and arets that stood at creation. That choice matters: poetry, unlike prose, holds a myriad of meanings at once, and that openness is exactly what a person needs walking into Yom Kippur. We read Ha'azinu this year not before Sukkot, as is usual, but right before Yom Kippur, and the poem's layered possibility turns out to be the very structure of teshuvah.Rabbi Dweck has held rabbinic leadership roles in the US and the UK. He is the Rosh Bet Midrash of TheHabura.com and the Rabbi Levy Chair of Jewish Wisdom at the London School of Jewish Studies.

Rabbi Dweck has held rabbinic leadership roles in the US and the UK. He is the Rosh Bet Midrash of TheHabura.com and the Rabbi Levy Chair of Jewish Wisdom at the London School of Jewish Studies.For more, check out rabbijosephdweck.com.Instagram: https://instagram.com/rabbidweckTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rabbidweckYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RabbiJosephDweck

The bulk of this parasha deals with a harsh foretelling of what will be the experience of the people of Israel if they live unfaithfully to the covenant and God's commandments.

It is an eerie and uncomfortable harbinger of a story that unfolds with persecution and pain that we sadly know only too well as Jewish history. In this episode we ponder that reality and also consider the unique and before unmentioned aspect of living the covenant with happiness and a goodness of heart.

Near the end of Debarim and approaching the High Holidays, Moshe’s final teachings move from Israel’s judicial structure to Parashat Ki Tetse, which contains 74 mitsvot shaping every facet of civil life—property, labor, charity, business ethics, relationships, agriculture, and honest weights and measures—framed not as mere morality but as covenantal obligations demanded by God...Rabbi Dweck has held rabbinic leadership roles in the US and the UK. He is the Rosh Bet Midrash of TheHabura.com and the Rabbi Levy Chair of Jewish Wisdom at the London School of Jewish Studies.

Moshe, in Parashat Shoftim, lays out the framework for Israel’s national governance—leaders, judges, enforcement, and criminal law—then warns that upon entering the land Israel must not adopt the abhorrent practices of the prior nations, including child sacrifice and all forms of divination, sorcery, spell-casting, and consulting the dead...For more, check out rabbijosephdweck.com.Instagram: https://instagram.com/rabbidweckTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rabbidweckYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RabbiJosephDweck

Moshe Rabbenu opens Re’eh by setting before Am Yisrael Har Gerizim and Har Evab as symbols of two paths—berakhah and kelalah—as they cross the Jordan to inherit and dwell in the land God gives them. He teaches that remaining on the derech of covenant requires guarding and doing all hukim and mishpatim as a unified system, and he immediately frames this as eradicating abodah zarah from the land, emphasizing there is no middle ground...This is generously sponsored by David Tawil for the good health and berachot for the Tawil family and Le’iluy Nishmat Jeremy Smouha - Yirmiyahu de Yehezkel Smouha HaLevi.Rabbi Dweck has held rabbinic leadership roles in the US and the UK. He is the Rosh Bet Midrash of TheHabura.com and the Rabbi Levy Chair of Jewish Wisdom at the London School of Jewish Studies.