Rabbi's Sermons

Based on Rabbi Dovid Fohrman

Imagine you are standing at the edge of the Sea of Reeds. Behind you, the thunder of six hundred chariots. Pharaoh's army, the most powerful military force in the ancient world, is bearing down on your family. Your children are crying. There is nowhere to run.

Now imagine something else. Imagine those same six hundred...Read more...

This sermon was given the shabbos after the Bondi Beach Chanukah Massacre.

Tonight, when you light your Chanukah candles, place them in the window as you always do. But this year, understand: that simple act—putting a menorah where the world can see it—is an act of defiance. An act of courage. It is a declaration. It is exactly what got fifteen Jews murdered in Sydney...Read more...

In 2010, Nobel Prize-winning economists Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton published research that sent shockwaves through the world of behavioral science. After analyzing over 450,000 responses from the Gallu-Healthways Well Being Index, they discovered that emotional well-being rises with income—but only up to approximately $75,000 per year. Beyond that threshold, more money produced no additional...Read more...

In ancient Roman mythology, there was a peculiar god named Janus. He was depicted as having two faces - one looking forward and the other looking back. Janus represented doorways, transitions, and the duality present in many aspects of life. In a sense, we all contain a measure of Janus within us. We often find ourselves torn between looking ahead to spiritual growth and...Read more...

Imagine receiving a letter from a billionaire uncle you've never met. The letter promises you a vast fortune—mansions, land, wealth beyond measure—all yours, absolutely guaranteed. You celebrate, you tell your friends, you dream about your future. But then decades pass. The uncle is real, the promises are real, but your bank account? Still empty. Your property holdings? Zero. At what point do you stop waiting...Read more...

In 1962, in a girls' school in Tanganyika (now Tanzania), three students started giggling during their morning lessons. Within hours, 95 of the 159 students were laughing uncontrollably. The school had to close. The laughter spread to neighboring villages. It jumped from person to person like a virus, lasting some people a few hours, others up to 16 days. Schools shut down. Work stopped. Over 1,000 people were...Read more...

Unfortunately, I have to travel this week to Australia to assist with a new tool that will hopefully help survivors of shocks and disasters accelerate recovery. In my absence, I wanted to send this short vort on the parasha.

Shabbat Shalom.

"וַיָּחֶל נֹחַ אִישׁ הָאֲדָמָה וַיִּטַּע...Read more...