Since there are no Rabbi Frand shiurim on the Parsha until Elul, I would like to substitute a vort from other Rabbanim each week, rather than leaving the blog without a vort for shabbos. This week, I am attempting to repeat a vort heard from R' Shraga Kallus as recorded on torahanytime.com (https://www.torahanytime.com/#/lectures?v=119082). Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the vorts to the best of my ability. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.
Rabbi Kallus quoted from the Haftorah where the Navi writes that the ox knows its owner and the donkey knows its feeding trough, but the Jews don't know Me. The simple explanation is that we are not as intelligent as the ox which recognizes its owner, or even the donkey which knows its food is coming in its trough and won't destroy it, but the Jews are not recognizing that things come from Hashem.
Rabbi Kallus explained that the message of the Navi is that the nature of a Jew is to be introspective and realize instinctively (like the nature of the ox or donkey) that everything comes from Hashem. R' Kallus quoted R' Shach who cited the Gemara in Nedarim which asked why the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed and they offered various answers. So the question then would be - if no one knew what they were doing wrong, why was the Beis HaMikdash destroyed? R Shach answered, the people of that generation knew what they were doing wrong. Hundreds of years later the amoraim in the Gemara may have debated it, but the people at the time knew what they were doing incorrectly.
R' Kallus said that the goal of the three weeks is to recognize Hashem and to feel closer to him. He said that everyone is going to get a spoonful of salt at a time. You can't eat the spoonful of salt. If you add it to a cup of water, its still going to be hard to swallow. But if you add it to a lake full of water, the water will still be delicious. In life, some people are a spoon, some people are a cup and some people are a lake. If you are a lake and there is a spoonful of salt, it wont impact on your outlook, because the salt does not alter that water's taste. If one views himself as a cup, the salt will sour the cup. And if a person views himself as a spoon - it will be very hard to swallow. It all depends on whether views the spoonful of salt in the context of all the great things that Hashem gives him, or just the moment in time when the event occurs.
Many people are dealing with troubles related to the coronavirus or other problems that are besetting the world. R' Kallus mentioned that his son put on tefillin for the first time, although he was in quarantine. They thought about putting it off so that the hanachas tefillin would be more public. But then they decided that they would view things from the perspective of the lake and the moment of being alone would not dampen their spirits.
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