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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