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.
R' Frand began the parsha vort by noting that in both Shemos 6:26 and 27, the Torah states "this was Moshe & Aharon" (although the order is reversed from one pasuk to the next). Rashi comments that the reason this was repeated was to show that they stayed themselves from the beginning to the end and did not change as a result of their successes.
R' Frand then quoted a sefer which I did not write the name of, which observes that sometime a person becomes involved in a cause and while it starts out lishma, things begin to change if the cause becomes successful. Sometimes a person will come to view the success of the cause as a badge of honor, or a way to monetize, or as a springboard to something else. However, Moshe and Aharon did not change as they were truly L'Shem Shamayim.
R' Frand then told a story about R' Noach Weinberg ZTL which was mentioned in the sefer. R' Noach was doing kiruv at the Kotel when he met an Israeli kid who he recognized had great potential. He brought the boy into Aish HaTorah and saw that he very quickly was absorbing the Torah concepts.
After a period of time the boy mentioned to R' Noach that there was a chess tournament in the US that he wanted to attend as the boy was also a chess prodigy. R' Noach was worried that if the boy went that he might not return to Yeshiva. R' Noach then offered him a challenge - play a game against me - if you win, I will pay for the trip to the US. If I win, you stay in Yeshiva.
The boy agreed and played the game...which R' Noach won. At some point after the boy asked R' Noach - why were you willing to play with these stakes, you don't have a chess background? R' Noach responded - I davened to Hashem and was doing solely L'Shem Shamayim and the moves that I made on the board were directed by Him.
R' Frand then said a second vort which related to yesterday's daf yomi and the parsha. In Pesachim 53 the Gemara discusses Todos Ish Romi who directed the Jews of Rome to consume G'di Mekulos (a young lamb prepared similar to the way the Karban Pesach was prepared) on Pesach. This was met with some consternation and he was warned that if he was not Todos, he would have been put in Nidoi, because this could have led people to eat Kodshim outside of Jerusalem in another year.
The gemara then asks- was he really a great man? The gemara answers the question by drawing from another thought said by Todos - that Chananya Mishael & Azarya jumped in the fiery furnace because they learned from the frogs in Parshas Vaera as they jumped in the fire.
Based on this limud, the gemara concluded that he was a great man, but why?
R' Frand quoted R' Boruch Shneerson who drew a parallel between the two incidents. When the people were eating the G'di Mekulos there was a divide or battle between the head and the hargasha (usually translated as feeling). People wanted to remember and be connected to the Karban Pesach and the G'di Mekulos was a great way to do so, but the head reminds that there is a danger that people will come to think they can eat Kodshim outside.
But he felt that the feeling/heart was more important and this connected with Chananya Mishael & Azarya. They knew that the image which was before them was not an avodah zara, but they jumped in the fire anyway because they learned from the instinct, from the feeling of the frogs, who jumped in the fire in Egypt.
Todos taught that it was important for people to feel connected and to act based on a need to feel that connection to the Pesach of old. This demonstrated that he was a great man.
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