The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha last 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 from the sefer L'Meromem which he has previously quoted from. He noted that Hashem's choice of salt for the wife of Lot was based on the people of Sodom who were narcissists. Salt is the exact opposite - as its sole purpose is to improve other things. No one eats just salt, it is used to enhance and improve something else.
R' Frand quoted the introduction to Nefesh HaChaim which notes that people were put on this Earth to help others, not to do things for yourself. Steak, pasta, even cake is improved with the addition of salt. Thus this is a reminder to be the antithesis of Sodom.
R' Frand said a second vort in the name of R' Michoel Forschlager, whose yahrtzeit is this week. R' Frand quoted R' Aharon Kotler Ztl who said that R' Michoel was the great Talmid Chacham in the USA. He was a talmid muvhak of the Avnei Nezer and R' Meir Shapiro wanted to hire R' Michoel to be the Rosh Yeshiva of Chachmei Lublin.
R' Frand said that he used to a Gemara shiur in Congregation Chizuk Emunah (a shul that broke off from a Reform synagogue) but when that shul went Conservative, he left.
R' Frand quoted the pasuk in Bereishis 22:19 which states that after the Akeidah - וַיֵּ֥שֶׁב אַבְרָהָ֖ם בִּבְאֵ֥ר שָֽׁבַע. The meforshim ask - where was Yitzchak? The Medrash explains that Yitzchak when to learn by the Yeshiva of Shem V'Ever, where he learned for three years. R' Forschlager asked - it says in Gemara in Yoma that Avraham was teaching Torah and Eliezer was doleh u'mahkeh from his Torah. So why is it that Yitzchak left? Because in order to grow in Torah, you need to be goleh to a place a Torah. But if this is the case, why did Yitzchak stay by Avraham for the first 37 years of his life? R' Forschlager quotes the Ari who quotes the Zohar, which states that until the Akeidah, Yitzchak had a neshama of a nekeiva. During the Akeidah, Yitzchak died and was revived and got up from the Akeidah and said Boruch Mechaye HaMeisim. Since previously he was a nekeivah and now got up and became a zachor, it was time for him to go away and learn Torah.
R' Frand said that the lesson from this is that when Avraham was told to shecht Yitzchak, Avraham must have thought that Hashem had changed his mind that Yitzchak would be source of Klal Yisrael. But in reality, this was actually the event that caused the birth of Klal Yisrael. Had Avraham not brought him and shechted him, he would not have come back with a male neshama and there would not have been a Klal Yisrael. Avraham could not have understood this would happen, but Hashem had a plan and it was not for Avraham to question.
R' Frand closed the vort by noting that the Kriyah on Rosh Hashanah which begins with the Akeidah ends with the birth of the children of Nachor (Bereishis 22:20-24). Why did the Kriyah need to include this on Rosh Hashanah? Couldn't it have ended with the end of the Akeidah? The answer is that there needed to be an Akeidah and Yitzchak to be reborn, as a result of which there was a requirement for his Bas Zug - for Rivkah to be born.
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