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.
R' Frand's first vort was based on a Rashi on the first pasuk in Netzavim. Rashi stated that after hearing the 98 Klallos in Ki Savo the Jews were disheartened. To this Moshe said - don't worry - you are still here. Even though you did many sins, you are still here.
Many meforshim ask - what was the point of the Tochacha if Moshe tells the Jews - don't worry? Doesn't that temper the warnings inherent in the Tochacha?
R' Frand answered in the name of R' Elya Ber Wachtfogel who quoted a Tosefta in Berachos which states that the most serene people in the world were those who lived in Sodom. Lot wanted to be like them as he wanted to be serene, much as the way that he observed Avraham to be.
R' Elya Ber explains that there are two types of people who are serene - those like Avraham and those like Sodom. Avraham is serene because he is content and has no internal battles as he accepts that everything is from Hashem. The people of Sodom were also serene - because they did what they wanted without any feelings of guilt.
When a person has an internal struggle between doing right and wrong there are two ways to resolve it. One is to put your faith in Hashem and do what He wants and the other is to whatever you want with no conscience.
Lot wanted Avraham's serenity but chose the easy route - to do whatever he wanted with no conscience.
What happened to Sodom? It was burned to the ground because everyone did what they wanted.
Moshe's message was - you are still around as Hashem did not do to you what He did to Sodom. You have fallen many times, but you are still fighting and that is why you are still around.
R' Frand said that this is a good message before Rosh Hashaha. Yes, you may have fallen at times in the last year. But as long as you are still battling, Hashem wants to keep you around.
R' Frand said a second vort on the pasuk in Devarim 31:21 - כִּ֛י לֹ֥א תִשָּׁכַ֖ח מִפִּ֣י זַרְע֑וֹ. R' Frand quoted R' Ya'akov Emdem who wrote in the introduction to his siddur that the greatest miracles are that (1) the Jews are still around despite all those who came against us to destroy us, and (2) that we have not lost a single letter from the Torah. Prior to the printing press, all the seforim were written by hand and when they were burned it was very difficult to replace. Yet we have not lost any aspect of the Torah and we are still around.
R' Frand closed by quoting a story told over by R' Melech Biederman about R' Yitzchak Tuvia Weiss who was a young boy when the Holocaust happened in Europe. At the time he was living in a small town in Slovakia and when the word about what the Nazis were doing got to his town, they sent young R' Yitzchak Tuvia to Pressburg to ask in the Kollel what they should do.
R' Yitzchak Tuvia met with the Rosh Kollel and he was told that they should all leave. The Rosh Kollel was very taken with R' Yitzchak Tuvia and offered him a ticket on the Kindertransport. He went back and asked his parents and they told him that he should go - with the last words from his mother - be a good Jew.
When they got to England, they were lined up in a park for an inspection by the King of England. The boy next to R' Yitzchak Tuvia left his place in line and approached the King. Although the guards tried to keep him away, the boy persisted and said to the King - please I need you to save my parents. The King investigated who the boy's parents were and saved them from death in Slovakia.
R' Yitzchak Tuvia remarked - what made that boy different from the rest of us is that he believed that the King was all powerful and based on his belief, he made the request and it was granted.
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