Thank you for agreeing to write for the Unraveller. The guidelines follow:
We are seeking a brief 500-700 word d'var haftarah devoted to a weekly or series of weekly parshiot. The commentary should speak to the laity and should not be filled with a series of quotations from various rabbinic and biblical sources. You should focus less on grammatical/textual nuances and more on a message for today. Work from your strength - historical background is encouraged and humor is never frowned upon. The purpose is to make the haftarah a source of meaning and understanding.
We very recently added a feature of asking the author, if possible, to pose a few questions drawn from the text, for discussion on the FJMC blogmentschen.org. These questions require the reader to actually think about what they read and thus better understand.
Go to http://fjmc.org/content/fjmc-unraveller or http://www.fjmc.org/content/fjmc-unraveller for links to the commentaries published for examples of the material.
Please submit your text to FJMCUnraveller@fjmc.org at least two (2) weeks prior to the Shabbat for your haftarah. The Unraveller Editor, will send you a reminder before the due date.
And, since we're sure you'd love for your congregation to read your submission, there's a place to provide an email address of either the Executive Director or Educational Director of your congregation (or someone else who can forward them the issue), that we'll send it to.