The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parshios this 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.
Rabbi Frand started the vort by making reference to a story in the gemara about a peddler. The peddler would announce that he was selling the elixir of life and that anyone who wanted the elixir of life should come to him. The peddler was approached by R' Yannai who asked to buy the elixir. The peddler responded to R' Yannai - you are a tzadik, you don't need this. However, R' Yannai persisted. Finally the seller said to him - look in the book of Tehillim - it is written in 34:12-13 -מִֽי־הָ֖אִישׁ הֶֽחָפֵ֣ץ חַיִּ֑ים אֹ֘הֵ֥ב יָ֜מִ֗ים לִרְא֥וֹת טֽוֹב. נְצֹ֣ר לְשֽׁוֹנְךָ֣ מֵרָ֑ע וּ֜שְׂפָתֶ֗יךָ מִדַּבֵּ֥ר מִרְמָֽה.
Following this conversation, R' Yannai was heard to say, all my life I would say these pesukim, but I never understood this until now.
R' Frand asked the obvious question - what was it that the peddler was able to teach R' Yannai about the pesukim in Tehillim which he did not know previously?
R' Frand answered by quoting R' Issar Zalman Meltzer who explained that the peddler was saying - this is life because it gives life. Generally a person who is tempted to sin and refrains from doing so receives a reward for his abstinence, but does not receive a reward for observing a positive commandment as well. However a person who stops himself from speaking loshon hara not only receives the reward for not violating the negative commandment, he even receives reward for keeping the positive commandment of נְצֹ֣ר לְשֽׁוֹנְךָ֣ מֵרָ֑ע וּ֜שְׂפָתֶ֗יךָ מִדַּבֵּ֥ר מִרְמָֽה.
R' Frand then quoted R' Nissim Alpert who explained that the chiddush of the peddler was where to end the question. While normally we read the pesukim as the question is in the first pasuk (34:12) and the answer is נְצֹ֣ר לְשֽׁוֹנְךָ֣ מֵרָ֑ע וּ֜שְׂפָתֶ֗יךָ מִדַּבֵּ֥ר מִרְמָֽה, the peddler viewed this differently. The question is מִֽי־הָ֖אִישׁ הֶֽחָפֵ֣ץ חַיִּ֑ים? The answer is אֹ֘הֵ֥ב יָ֜מִ֗ים לִרְא֥וֹת טֽוֹב. If a person wants life he should love his days to see good. With that positive mindset he will be more likely to guard his tongue from speaking evil.
R' Frand closed the vort by asking a question related to the punishment for the Meraglim of spending 40 years in the desert as equivalent to the 40 days they were in the land of Israel. But they did not speak loshon hora for 40 days - it probably took only a few minutes! They were only in the land for 40 days.
He answered that they were punished one year for one day because when they walked around the land they viewed the land negatively. Chazal tell us that they had a negative view and said אֶ֣רֶץ אֹכֶ֤לֶת יֽוֹשְׁבֶ֨יהָ֙ הִ֔וא (Bamidbar 13:32) based on all the funerals they saw. However they could have looked at the positive - because the people of the land were so preoccupied with the funerals, they did not keep an eye out for the Meraglim.
R' Frand said a second vort which related to the Haftorah of Metzorah which will not be read this year as this Shabbos is also Rosh Chodesh and that Haftorah is read instead. R' Frand quoted R' Bukspan who said his father had observed that the Haftorah starts from the middle of the perek (Melachim II, 7:3) and leaves out the nevuah from Elisha that the following day Hashem would cause the price of flour to fall precipitously and the skeptical response from the king's officer of will Hashem make - אֲרֻבּוֹת֙ בַּשָּׁמַ֔יִם הֲיִהְיֶ֖ה הַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֑ה. Instead the Haftorah begins with a description of the 4 Metzoraim and only ends with the skepticism of the officer and that he was trampled when the prophesy was fulfilled.
He tied this to a Medrash quoted by R' Kasher on Parshas Noach. The Medrash states that the officer's problem was not that he did not believe Hashem could do this, it was that the Jews were not worthy of the reward. He invoked the אֲרֻבּוֹת֙ בַּשָּׁמַ֔יִם term because this is what Hashem brought down on the generation of Noach because they were not worthy of being saved.
For this reason, the officer was not worthy to see the prophecy fulfilled and was trampled by the people when the price of flour dropped.
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