Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Bechukosai

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha 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.

The first vort that R' Frand said related to the beracha in Vayikra 26:4 that if the Jews listen to Hashem - וְנָֽתַתִּ֥י גִשְׁמֵיכֶ֖ם בְּעִתָּ֑ם. Rashi explains that this means that Hashem will cause rain to fall when people are home and not on the road - on Shabbos and Yom Tom evenings. 

R' Frand quoted the Rama in the sefer Toras Ha'Olah which ties with a different sign of beracha. The Gemara teaches that there were periods that when the Jews were so good, they never saw a rainbow, as we learn that the rainbow comes to show that Hashem is keeping His word and will not destroy the world again. The Rama observed that rainbows are natural phenomena - what does it mean that they never saw a rainbow? He explains that the Jews were so good that it only rained at night and since the rain was at night they did not see a rainbow.

R' Frand said another vort based on the pasuk at the end of the Tochacha in Vayikra 26:42 - וְזָֽכַרְתִּ֖י אֶת־בְּרִיתִ֣י יַֽעֲק֑וֹב. Rashi notes that there are five times that Ya'akov is spelled with a Vuv and Eliyahu is spelled without a Vav. He explains that Ya'akov asked Eliyahu to promise that he would come and tell the world that the Moshiach was coming. As part of this promise he took collateral from Eliyahu - the five Vuvs. 

R' Frand then quoted the Maharal who notes that when a person takes collateral, it is often accompanied by a handshake. And there are five fingers on a hand - so Ya'akov took five Vuvs which are like five fingers, so that they shook on the deal that Eliyahu would come in the future to talk about the Moshiach coming in the future.

R' Frand then quoted a Meshech Chachma which he has previously stated (he observed that tonight completed 42 years of his giving the shiur, B'Ah). The Meshech Chachma talks about the scope of Jewish history and Hashem's hand. Hashem had a Gezeira that the Jews would be in Galus for Millenia. How did we not get assimilated? It is due to the Gedolim who instituted safeguards - the first being Ya'akov who was worried that the Jews would be assimilated in Egypt - so he commanded that he should not be buried in Egypt, because if he was buried there, his children and grandchildren and those who came after would think that this was their land.

These decrees continued by the Anshei Kneses HaGedolah who instituted guardrails such as the 18 rules such as Pas Akum and Stam Yeynam - they are meant to remind us that we are foreigners and that we are like olive branches that cannot be grafted to another a tree. The Gemara in Shabbos states that even Eliyahu HaNavi will not be able to mevatel these safeguards.

The Meshech Chachma continues that Jews will live in lands for hundreds of years and they will not feel like they are foreigners. They will then give up waiting for Moshiach, at which time there will be another greater storm and people will yell - you are a Jew, not a man - get out of here.

And after moving on the Jew will live in another land and adopt the language and feel like a citizen and will think "Berlin is Jerusalem." But then another storm will come and uproot him from that land and he will again realize that he is a foreigner. 

This was written in the 1920s. And while prior to the post October 7 swell of anti-Semitism people might have thought it could not happen in America. But can that still be said? 

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Behar

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha 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.

In Vayikra 25:31, the Torah gives the proscription against collecting interest as the Torah states אַל־תִּקַּ֤ח מֵֽאִתּוֹ֙ נֶ֣שֶׁךְ וְתַרְבִּ֔ית. The Gemara in Bava Metzia (which we recently covered in Daf Yomi) quotes R' Shimon who states that more than a person gains from collecting the interest, he loses.

The meforshim struggle with how to understand R' Shimon. How is this different than violating any other negative commandment? 

R' Frand quoted the Klei Yakar who explains that Ribbis was banned because it causes a person to lose Bitachon in Hashem. When a person is involved in business, he recognizes that it is dependent on Hashem. He can buy a product with the hope that he can resell it for a profit, but there is no guaranty. However, someone who lends money on interest (provided that there is a co-signer on the loan or that it is secured by collateral) will sleep well as he knows that he will always have money coming in.

This is R' Shimon's lesson - a person needs to have faith in Hashem even in a time of difficulty. If this person loses his ability to have faith in Hashem that Hashem will provide for him financially, when that person has other trouble he will have lost his feeling of serenity - of knowing that Hashem will be there for him.

R' Frand tied this into a story about R' Dovid Bleisher (sp?) who was the Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva in Navardok. He had raised money to buy flour to bake matza and had stored it in a building. One night there was a significant storm that tore the roof off the building and the flour was then soaked with rain - thus no longer could it be used to bake matza. 

R' Dovid brought the students together and asked 4 questions - who told us that we need to eat matza? And who arranged that we would have flour? And who caused the roof to be ripped off the building? And lastly, who caused the rain to fall? If Hashem wants us to eat matza we will, and if not then we wont. 

Shortly before Pesach a check came into the Yeshiva which allowed them to buy more flour to make matza for Pesach. But the lesson was the serenity to accept that it all came from Hashem. 

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Emor

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand on the parsha 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.

In Vayikra 22:31, the Torah states וּשְׁמַרְתֶּם֙ מִצְו‍ֹתַ֔י וַֽעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָ֑ם. This is traditionally translated as - You shall keep My commandments and perform them. But R' Frand quoted a talmid of the Arizal who explained that it means that a person should keep a watch out in anticipation of doing a Mitzva and that when he does do the Mitzva, it should solely be for the sake of Heaven, with no personal or ulterior motive.

R' Frand then quoted the Zohar which comments on this pasuk that a person should do Mitzvos with fear of Heaven and love of Hashem and that any Mitzva performed without these emotions will not make it up to Shamayim.

R' Frand then told a story about someone who approached the Choftez Chaim and complained that he lacked the emotions required by the Zohar. To this, the Chofetz Chaim said to him - let me tell you a story. There was a baker in Rodin who pre-WWI had complained to the Chofetz Chaim that everyone criticized his products. Some people said the bread was too well done, while others said it should have baked longer. Other people complained that the bread was too dense while still other people thought that it was too light. The baker asked the Chofetz Chaim for a Beracha that people should appreciate his products.

A number of years after WWI, the Chofetz Chaim crossed paths with the baker and the baker said to him that his Beracha had come to pass. During WWI food was at premium and now everyone came to his shop happy that there was bread available for purchase. No one complained about the quality of the bread and people were all quite happy.

The Chofetz Chaim then said - the times of the Zohar were different - the Amoraim were capable of performing Mitzvos with those intentions and emotions. But today (end of the 1910s) Hashem is happy that people are performing Mitzvos, given the Haskalah and what it has done to the Jewish people.

R' Frand closed the vort by saying that now, one hundred years later, with all the Jews who are not frum, Hashem is certainly happy when we do His Mitzvos, even if we do not necessarily do them with trepidation and awe or with tremendous love.

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Kedoshim

Although R' Frand did not deliver his live shiur this evening, R' Frand did post a pre-recorded Parsha vort on OU Torah which I have summarized here. This week's vort can be found at https://outorah.org/p/193220 and I have attempted to reproduce the vort to the best of my ability in this post.  Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to the maggid shiur.

R' Frand began by noting that one of the most famous mitzvos in the Torah appears in this week's Parsha (Vayikra 19:18) -  וְאָֽהַבְתָּ֥ לְרֵֽעֲךָ֖ כָּמ֑וֹךָ. R' Frand quoted the Ramban who explains that this pasuk is an exaggeration, because its impossible to demand from someone to love their neighbor as themselves. He quotes R' Akiva who says that this is a "Klal Gadol B'Torah" but also notes that R' Akiva states in Bava Metzia that if two people are traveling in the desert and one has enough water and the other does not, he drinks the water and does not give it to the other person.

R' Frand said that while a person could love their spouse or children like himself, it is just not possible to love an unrelated person in that fashion.

Rather, the Ramban explains that you should want your friend to have it as well as you have it. And this can be difficult, you may be OK that your friend is as wealthy as you, but not that they have as nice a family or as much nachas from their children.

The Ramban explains that the reason for this is jealousy and this needs to be eliminated from your heart. Because if you see that someone has something that you don't, it eats at you.

R' Frand quoted a Gemara in Shabbos 31 where a person came to Shammai and asked to be converted while standing on one foot and Shammai did not take this kindly. He then came to Hillel and made the same request. Hillel responded - don't do to another what you don't want done to you - this is the Torah and the rest is commentary.

But this mitzva only is between man and his fellow man - what does this have to do with sitting in a Sukkah or eating Matza?

R' Frand suggested that the Ramban quoted above can be a way to understand how this is the one Mitzva and the rest is commentary. If someone accepts that what they have - car, spouse, children is what Hashem wants them to have, then they can combat jealousy because he believes that Hashem is intimately involved in what happens to me. Its all about Emunah - and that is all of the Mitzvos between man and man and the Mitzvos between man and Hashem.

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Thursday's Parsha Tidbits - Parshas Acharei Mos

The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand 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.

The vort R' Frand said this evening did not relate to Parshas Acharei Mos and was more centered on today having been the 24th of Nissan and the yahrtzeit of Sasha Mindel Bas Ephraim Yehuda - the granddaughter of R' Shlomo Kluger.

R' Frand noted that R' Shlomo Zalman Auerbach would say Kaddish for this girl on the 24th of Nissan and that R' Shlomo Kluger had requested in his introduction to the Sefer Nidrei Ziruzin that anyone who had benefited from his seforim should say Kaddish for his daughter if they could...and if not, they should pay an Ani to do so,=.

R' Frand quoted from the sefer which talks about how the granddaughter was set up with a man named R' Ya'akov Hertzberg and that people who made the shidduch were evil and he was upset at himself for not checking the family properly as they were evil as well. After the marriage they began to expert pressure on the granddaughter and tortured her. She was afflicted with a diseased lung within a few months of the marriage and went in for treatment, but the Kluger family was not told. By the time R' Shlomo found out and took her to a proper doctor it was too late and she died shortly thereafter. He writes that Hashem should avenge her blood against those who knew the character of this family and did not warn them not to allow their granddaughter not to marry into the family. 

R' Frand noted that the Chofetz Chaim discusses the permissibility of saying Lashon Hara L'Toeles - for a purpose. A prime example is if you know that someone is looking to go into business with a person you know is dishonest. You should warn the potential victim, provided that you meet the Chofetz Chaim's five categories, including that you don't hate the person you are speaking about and would not have said these things independently.

R' Frand then quoted R' Yaakov Luban who noted that the pasuk in Kedoshim - לֹֽא־תֵלֵ֤ךְ רָכִיל֙ בְּעַמֶּ֔יךָ has a continuation לֹ֥א תַֽעֲמֹ֖ד עַל־דַּ֣ם רֵעֶ֑ךָ - that if you see a dangerous situation you should not keep your mouth shut, but rather should warn the potential victim.

R' Frand said that he had found this vort today and realized that it was the 24th of Nissan and that he said Kaddish for this girl at mincha.

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