Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Lech Lecha

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts on the parsha that R' Frand spoke about in his shiur tonight. I have attempted to reproduce these 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 R' Frand. 

Rabbi Frand began the shiur by quoting the Gemara in Taanis 21a which discusses Nachum Ish Gam Zu, who was R' Akiva's teacher. He got his name because whenever something happened he said Gam Zu L'Tova - this also will be for good. They once sent him to the Caesar with a present on behalf of the Jews - a chest full of pearls and jewels. He stopped at an inn and overnight the inn keepers took the jewels from the chest and filled it with dirt. When he got to the Caesar he opened the chest and saw that it was full of dirt. His advisors said to him - the Jews are making fun of you! But then Eliyahu HaNavi appeared as a member of the court and said to the Caesar - maybe this is the dirt that Avraham used in battle and it turned to arrows. The Caesar had a particularly troublesome country that he could not conquer, and they used the dirt and it turned to arrows and spears and the country was captured.

The Caesar was so happy that he filled the chest with jewels and precious stones. He stopped in at the same inn on the way back and the inn keeper asked him what happened? He said that I gave the Caesar the chest and he was appreciative. The inn keeper and his family took more of their dirt to the Caesar and told him that it was the same magic dirt. When the dirt turned out to not possess the same powers, the Caesar killed the inn keeper and his family.

R' Frand then quoted R' Bukspan who had sent him a vort from the Ostrovsker Rebbi. He asked, why did Hashem decide that the dirt should become arrows and spears? He answered that this is Middah K'Neged Middah. People naturally attribute their successes to their own powers and talents. It is a test, as people are essentially dirt- its what we are made of and where everyone will go one day. People are constantly tested that they should not think that their successes are their own - when it all comes from Hashem. Since Avraham realized that all successes are because of Hashem and he believed and practiced it, Hashem used dirt to give him the success. He believed in Hashem and Hashem can turn dirt into a weapon. 

The Rebbi said - this is why Nachum Ish Gam Zu got the same reward. A person who constantly says that this also good because its all from Hashem, recognizes that he has no independent powers and that it all comes from Hashem.

R' Frand then connected this with another gemara - Chullin 7b. The gemara says Ein Od Milvado - without Hashem we are powerless, we can't even take a breath. The gemara quoted R' Chanina who says that even Kishafim - black magic, cannot overcome Hashem. The gemara then told a story about a woman who wanted dirt from under his steps so that she could use it for black magic against him. He told her - go ahead! Ein Od Milvado, there is no power beyond Hashem.

The gemara then asked - R' Yochanan says that the reason its called Kishafim is because it has power and makes C'Vyachol the Heavenly Court weak. But the gemara responds, it is powerless against R' Chanina.

R' Frand quoted the Nefesh HaChaim which states that Hashem gave power to Kishafim in earlier times. But that power does not supersede Hashem's. When the gemara says that the Kishafim was powerless against R' Chanina, it was not because he was a great lamdan and knew so much Torah. Its because he fervently believed with all his being that there is no greater power than Hashem.

R' Frand also quoted a gemara in Berachos which discussed a city with a dangerous snake which killed many people. They told R' Chanina about it and he asked he see where the den was. He then went to the entrance to the snake's lair and put his foot over it and when the snake tried to get out and bit R' Chanina, the snake died. Because when a person has such strong belief in Hashem, the snake could not hurt him. (R. Frand then cautioned - don't try this at home!).

R' Frand told a story about the Brisker Rav who was escaping from Europe with his sons and they came to a checkpoint with a Nazi solider who was checking papers. He told his sons - just concentrate on Ein Od Milvado and nothing can happen and they made it through.

R' Frand mentioned a story he heard on the radio about a Yale professor who had written a book on the permanent changes which he believes will result from the COVID times. One observation he made is that people have become more religious, which R' Frand tied to the expression - there are no atheists in a foxhole. Will this be permanent? Probably not, but even if the secular world is increasing their belief in Hashem because of what is going on, we should as well. Because even the doctors don't have answers about COVID and this is Hashem's way of telling us that He is in control.

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Noach

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts on the parsha that R' Frand spoke about in his first shiur back after recovering from COVID, BH. I have attempted to reproduce these 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 R' Frand. 

R' Frand began the parsha vort by quoting the Medrash on the pasuk in Bereishis 9:12 - וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים זֹ֤את אֽוֹת־הַבְּרִית֙ אֲשֶׁר־אֲנִ֣י נֹתֵ֗ן בֵּינִי֙ וּבֵ֣ינֵיכֶ֔ם וּבֵ֛ין כָּל־נֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אִתְּכֶ֑ם לְדֹרֹ֖ת עוֹלָֽם . The word L'Doros is spelled without its usual Vuvs and the Medrash comments that there will be two generations which will not have rainbows because those generations will have tzadikkim because of whom Hashem will not become angry enough to want to destroy the world.

The two generations referred to are the generations of Tzidkiyahu and the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah. Tzidkiyahu is referred to a Tzaddik Yisod Olam - a Tzaddik who was the foundation of the world. Hashem wanted to make Tzidkiyahu the Mashiach and due to his righteousness, Hashem never was angered enough to want to destroy the world.

Similarly, the Anshei Knesses HaGedolah were particularly righteous in that they authored the prayers which we still say to this day.

However a different opinion quoted by the Medrash is that the second generation was R' Shimon Ben Yochai. The Medrash tells a story involving Eliyahu HaNavi learning with R' Yehoshua Ben Levi when they reached a statement of R' Shimon Ben Yochai. Eliyahu went to ask R' Shimon Ben Yochai about it and he asked Eliyahu - who is with you? Eliyahu responded, the Gadol HaDor - R' Yehoshua Ben Levi. R' R' Shimon Ben Yochai asked - did he see a rainbow in his lifetime? Yes, Eliyahu responded. Then he cannot come in to me, replied R' Shimon Ben Yochai.

R' Frand quoted a similar gemara in Kesubos when R' Yehoshua Ben Levi passed away and they announced in Shamayim - clear the way for the great Tzaddik. But then it was asked - was there a rainbow in his days? Yes, was the answer. Well then he is not a great Tzaddik.

R' Frand then quoted the famous dispute as to whether Noach was a true Tzaddik or just a Tzaddik in his time. R' Frand quoted R' Yosher Ber Soloveitchik who said that this Medrash supports the concept that Noach was not a true Tzaddik. Since there was a rainbow in Noach's times, it must mean that he was not a true Tzaddik and could not protect his generation.

R' Frand quoted the Zohar which relates Hashem's questioning of Noach as to why he did not daven for his generation and why he did not try to convince them to repent. Noach responded that it was because he did not think they were capable of repenting.

R' Frand quoted R' Meir Shapiro who said that if you don't think that a person is capable of doing Teshuva, you will never be able to influence him. This is why Noach was not successful.

R' Soloveitchik said that this is the symbolism of the rainbow. Hashem is teaching Noach that no matter how dark the day is, even to the point that the light meters come on, there can be light in the middle of the darkness - that is the rainbow. And Noach did not get it - people have some light inside of them.

This is why the flood is called Mei Noach in Isaiah - because Noach did not do enough for his generation.

R' Frand connected this to another statement of R' Soloveitchik showing that you cannot give up on people. 

He referred to the Gemara in Berachos which discusses how R' Gamliel was removed from being the Nasi and R' Elazar Ben Azarya became the Nasi. That day they removed the guard who kept people out of the Beis Medrash under R' Gamliel's view that only people who were tocho k'baro could come in to learn. That day, they had to add benches to the yeshiva to accommodate all the extra students.

R' Gamliel was depressed about this -seeing all the students that he prevented from attending. So he had a dream that night wherein he saw white vessels full of ashes - as if to say that he was right as the students appeared white, but were full of ash. But the Gemara says otherwise - that was only to make him feel better.

The Chiddushei HaRim asks - why was R' Gamliel depressed? He had seen their "applications" and knew that they were not tocho k'baro, so why be upset? He answers that yes, R' Gamliel saw that they were deficient, but he also saw how they changed when they entered the Beis Medrash and the amazing power of Torah to change people. In order to appease R' Gamliel they showed him the white vessels filled with ashes, but he was wrong.

R' Soloveitchik explains - this is the symbolism of the vessels filled with ashes. Ashes appear to be burnt up and useless, but when you blow on ashes, the fire can be relit. 

R' Frand said that this is the same lesson to Noach - although you think that these people are hopelessly wicked, there can be a return, much like there can be light on the darkest day. It is never without hope.

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Sunday Night Suds - Saranac Hoptoberfest IPA

This week's Sunday Night Suds looks at Saranac Hoptoberfest IPA.

This fall, Saranac continued to roll out new beers, with their 2020 German Roots mix box. This includes long time standard Black Forest (reviewed here https://kosherbeers.blogspot.com/2010/01/sunday-night-suds-saranac-black-forest.html); 1888 Octoberfest (which was introduced in 2017, but never reviewed here) and two new beers for 2020, the Festival Pils and the Hoptoberfest IPA.

The Hoptobefest IPA bills itself out as an IPA, but it is not a traditional IPA. The color is an orange which tends towards rose and the most prominent taste is the octoberfest spice note. Their are some piney hops, but they tend toward the metallic and the breadiness screams lager, not IPA. 

I tried this beer on Shabbos with chulent and it did not stand up to the hearty beef and potato stew. I tried it again tonight by itself with my daf and I was able to taste more of the individual elements of the beer, it still did not make sense to me as it seemed like a clash of tastes more than a bonding.

At 6% abv the beer is not light on alcohol, but if you are looking for bitters, consider looking elsewhere.

The Hobtoberfest IPA is under the Kosher Supervision of the Va'ad of Detroit as is every other beer produced at the Matt Brewery plant in Utica, NY. Keep in mind, Saranac brews some varieties off site, so check the cans/bottles for kosher certification from the Va'ad of Detroit.

To see what the experts on Beer Advocate think about the brew, click you can search on  https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/99/500161/. 

As always, please remember to drink responsibly and to never waste good beer unless there is no designated driver.

If you've tried this beer or any others which have been reviewed on the kosher beers site, please feel free to post your comments (anonymous comments are acceptable).

Lastly, if you have seen this post being carried on another site, please feel free to click www.kosherbeers.blogspot.com to find other articles on the kosherbeers blogsite. Hey its free and you can push my counter numbers up!

Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Bereishis

Although this post is generally a summary of vorts from R' Yissachar Frand, he was unable to give his Thursday Night Parsha shiur this week as he is still recovering from Covid. However, his son R' Yaakov Frand gave the shiur in his place and I have summarized some of the thoughts he said over on the parsha evening. I have attempted to reproduce these 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 R' Frand.

In this week's parsha we have a discussion of the fight between Kayin and Hevel, but not of the argument itself. In Bereishis 4:8, the Torah states וַיֹּ֥אמֶר קַ֖יִן אֶל־הֶ֣בֶל אָחִ֑יו וַֽיְהִי֙ בִּֽהְיוֹתָ֣ם בַּשָּׂדֶ֔ה וַיָּ֥קָם קַ֛יִן אֶל־הֶ֥בֶל אָחִ֖יו וַיַּֽהַרְגֵֽהוּ. 

The pasuk is interesting as it mentions that Kayin said something, but then it does not repeat what was said. Instead it describes that they were in the field and that Kayin killed Hevel.

Rashi explains that the conversation between the brothers was an argument, but even he does not give the details about what they fought over.

The Medrash offers three views on the subject of the fight. The first is that they were arguing about the division of assets of the world - who would receive the land and who would receive the movable items. The second opinion was that they had a fight over whose land would have the Beis HaMikdash built on it. The third opinion was that the fight was about a woman - the extra sister who was born to one of them.

R' Frand said as an aside that a famous person (not identified by him) said that all the fights in the world can be derived from these three theories. People fight over possessions, or religion or women.

But the question is, why does the Torah not tell us the reason that they fought? There are many medrashim where the entire story is left out of the Torah, such as Avraham being thrown in the fiery furnace. But here the Torah says that Kayin said something, but not what was said that caused the fight.

If the fight was important then tell us what they were fighting about. And if its not important, then why even mention the fight?

R' Frand quoted R' Bukspan from Miami who offered a novel take on the reason why the story was never told - because it does not matter. Many times, a person will get into a fight with another person and the fight itself will carry over long beyond the item they are fighting over. Sometimes a fight will carry on so long that neither person can even remember why they were fighting.

This is what the Torah is telling us - they got in a fight. What they fought about does not matter. In fact, what the fight is about never matters. What matters is that there was a fight.

The Torah then continues and tells us that Kayin was punished. The Torah is not punitive and what follows is a consequence, because it is a sequence. The punishment for Kayin was that he would be a nomad and would constantly be on the move. Why is this middah k'neged middah? Because a person gets into a fight because they don't want to move. I am standing on my position and not going to budge.

The Torah tells us that if you get into a fight because you are standing your ground, you will never have serenity and will not be at peace. This is why Kayin's punishment was to be a nomad.

R' Frand said a final thought on this theme. Kayin had many grandchildren. Shes also had many grandchildren. And many of these grandchildren had the same name, like Lemech and Chanoch and other names that there were similar, but not identical. Why? Because the Torah tells us that a person who gets into arguments can do the exact same thing as someone else who succeeds. But he will not succeed, because for him, everything is about the fight. From the time that he wakes up in the morning until he goes to sleep at night, he is thinking about the fight. And if the fight consumes his every thought while he does his daily tasks, he will not be successful.

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Post Sukkos Recap - my favorite vort from Sukkos

 Over chol hamoed, I heard a number of incredible vorts which I combined into one vort when I spoke on Simchas Torah. The vorts came from Rabbi Shraga Kallus and Rabbi Etiel Goldvicht and had inspiration from Rabbi Zev Cohen. 

Rabbi Kallus told a story about a man who was travelling through Berdichev right before Sukkos. That year, there were no lulavim and esrogim to be found in Berdichev, but this man had one. The people of the town begged him to stay, but he refused. They offered to pay him to stay, but he said that he needed to get home as his family would be worried. They then suggested that they could send a messenger to his family, but still was not enough.

Finally, in order to convince him to stay, the Berdichiver Rebbi told him that if he stayed for Sukkos, he would have a spot next to the Rebbi in Olam Haba. Well, this was something that he could not turn down. He agreed to stay in the town for Sukkos...but on the first night of Sukkos when he was going out to the Sukkah from the home that he was being boarded at, he saw that there was a table set in the dining room. As he was about to enter the Sukkah, he was told that he was not permitted to enter and that table in the dining room was for him. 

The man went to another home and asked to eat in their Sukkah and was similarly declined. He went to a third and fourth home and after being rebuffed, he realized that the Rebbi was behind it, so he went to the Rebbi and asked to eat in the Sukkah. The Rebbi said to him - you need to make a choice - you can agree to give up being with me in Olam Haba or you won't get to eat in the Sukkah. Weighing his options one against the other, he agreed to give up the right to be with the Rebbi in Olam Haba.

At the close of the holiday, he came to say good bye to the Rebbi at which point the Rebbi had a conversation with him and explained his thought process, but before getting there, lets talk a little about Sukkos.

We know that Sukkos comes as a consolation for the Jewish people after the Yimei HaDin of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As Rabbi Zev Cohen is fond of saying, the Sukkah is Hashem's way of giving us a reassuring hug and we embrace that by putting our entire body into the Sukkah. 

But R' Etiel Goldvicht had a bit more expansive view of the concept of Sukkah. He talked about how to elevate the mitzva of Lulav & Esrog by taking them into the Sukkah and blessing and waving them there. The Lulav & Esrog are a combination of four species, some which have taste and smell (Esrog) another which has taste but no smell (Lulav) a third which has smell but no taste (Hadas) and the fourth which has no taste or smell (Aravah). These symbolize different kinds of Jews - some who have Torah and mitzvos, others which have Torah or mitzvos and some who have neither. 

The concept of the Lulav & Esrog brings all these kinds together, because we need all kinds of Jews to be as one nation, and the taking of the Lulav & Esrog in the Sukkah is symbolic of Hashem's embracing all kinds of Jews.

But back to the story. The Berdichever told the man - you will still get to be with me in Olam Haba. But it can't be a business transaction. You don't earn Olam Haba by buying it, you get it because you want to be close to Hashem for his sake.

So on this year when so many of the usual ways to come close to Hashem for Simchas Torah are not present in that we did not get to dance together and circle the Amud and embrace the Sifrei Torah, we need to remember that the point is to want to draw close to Hashem for his sake and not for ours. And everyone who does what they can in this enforced distanced 2020 to still draw close to his fellow Jew and come close to Hashem, shows that they are doing it for His sake on His terms and not simply because it feels good to keep the mitzva.

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