The following is a brief summary of some of thoughts said over by R' Frand in his annual Teshuva Derasha which was delivered in Baltimore on Thursday evening. I have attempted to summarize the first part of the derasha in this post and iyh will do an additional post over the weekend. This was a very powerful derasha and my attempt to summarize should not be viewed as an exact transcript. Any perceived inconsistency is the result of my efforts to transcribe the shiur and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
R' Frand began the derasha by saying that he was tempted to make a Shehechyanu on the derasha. He mentioned that he had been giving it for close to 40 years and then could not give the derasha in 2020 because of the pandemic and then last year he had a health incident which put him in the hospital and only with Chasdei Hashem was he out of the hospital before Kol Nidrei.
R' Frand noted that many Rabbanim before the Yamin Noraim review the liturgy with the tzibbur. One year R' Shraga Feivel Mendelovich broke down crying at the phrase Maasei Ish U'Pikudaso - saying who can know one's destiny? R' Frand said that whenever he hears that story he thinks its very strange. R' Shraga Feivel built Torah V"Daas when it was a fledging elementary school and provided the first post elementary school yeshiva. But more importantly, he was the driving force behind the day school movement - Torah U'Mesorah. He paraphrased Herbert Hoover's phrase "a chicken in every pot" to a day school in every Jewish community. R' Frand said that if you were raised in a community outside of New York, your education was probably because of R' Shraga Feivel. R' Frand said that the day school opened in Seattle in 1950 and that without it, he would probably not be here today.
R' Frand said those two accomplishments - Torah V'Daas and the day school movement should be enough, yet R' Shraga Feivel was unsure if he fulfilled his destiny.
R' Frand spoke about R' Kalmanovitch's role in saving the Mirrer Yeshiva. Who paid for the clothes, who paid for the food and buildings? He raised funds for all the students and Rebbeim's needs - to the point that one of the students wrote to him that he could not wear tzitzis because they had completely worn out, so R' Kalmanovitch sent 300 pairs of tzitzis to the Yeshiva.
R' Frand said that R' Kalmanovitch had been thrown out of so many government buildings in trying to raise funds for the Yeshiva that he felt that it had been decreed that he would burn in the ovens of Treblinka. He sent vast amounts of money to Shanghai and was visited by the FBI who told him that he was supporting enemy combatants. He told them - I don't care, these are my children.
By 1947 the Mirrer Yeshiva was comfortably in Yerushalayim and Brooklyn, so he set his sights on bringing yeshiva age boys from Morocco to learn in real yeshivas and there is a picture of him with a boatload of them.
What would the Torah world look like today without the Mirrer Yeshiva. Yet even on his deathbed he quoted Rabbeinu Yonah in Shaarei Teshuva and wondered whether he met his destiny.
R' Frand noted that we will say Viddui 10x on Yom Kippur, but these are sins of commission. But the Sfas Emes says that our main teshuva is not fulfilling out mission on this earth. He quotes the pasuk from Yeshaya read as the Haftorah on fast days - כִּ֡י כַּֽאֲשֶׁ֣ר יֵרֵד֩ הַגֶּ֨שֶׁם וְהַשֶּׁ֜לֶג מִן־הַשָּׁמַ֗יִם וְשָׁ֙מָּה֙ לֹ֣א יָשׁ֔וּב כִּי אִם־הִרְוָ֣ה אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְהֽוֹלִידָ֖הּ וְהִצְמִיחָ֑הּ וְנָ֚תַן זֶ֙רַע֙ לַזֹּרֵ֔עַ וְלֶ֖חֶם לָֽאֹכֵֽל - that we need to be like the rain and snow - fulfill our mission and not return until it is accomplished.
And if these great people are worried about whether they completed their mission, what can we say? It was easy in the times of the prophets - we ask and they tell us what our mission is. But there are no prophets today.
R' Frand said that sometimes we are sent something - an opportunity and we need to be able to be aware of it and not be obtuse.
R' Frand talked about Sarah Shneur who founded the Beis Yaakov movement. She was a seamstress who went to hear derashos about how young women need a place to learn and she decided to start classes in her seamstress studio. R' Frand said - imagine if she had not heeded the call and when she went to Shamayim and they asked her - where are the Beis Yaakovs and she responded what are those?
R' Frand said she had married late in life and then got divorced and never had children. But if you went to a Beis Yaakov, you are one of her children. She had thousands of spiritual children, mission accomplished.
R' Frand mentioned Herschel Weber who was a Jew from Brooklyn who was present when a man fainted and dropped while walking out of shul. He stayed with the man until the ambulance came, but there was nothing they could do and the man had died. He heard the ambulance tech saying - if only we had gotten here 3 minutes earlier...and he also heard someone yell from the street - Herschel, you killed him.
He was so shaken by this that he went to the Satmar Rav and asked what he should do? The Satmar Rav told him to start an organization to train people in emergency medical treatment and call it - Hatzalah. And that's why we have that organization - because he heard a knock on the door.
R' Frand spoke about Yaakov Meyer who started Misaskim - the organization which not only provides chairs, but also counseling. He was diagnosed with Leukemia and asked his Rav what to do and was told do chessed. So he thought about and started Misaskim.
R' Frand said that it does not need to be a one time event, it could be something that presents itself to you frequently - but when it does, take that challenge.
R' Frand told a story about R' Ovadia Yosef - a great Sephardic Gadol who was a prolific writer, but he gave great pride to the Sephardic community and it almost did not happen. His father was a grocer and at the age of 11, his father said that it was time for him leave Yeshivat Porat Yosef and time to work in the grocery store. R' Attia (one of the Roshei Yeshiva) noticed that R' Ovadia was not coming to yeshiva and he visited the grocery store where he saw him stocking the shelves. R' Attia said - he needs to come back to yeshiva, but the father argued - I need him to stock the shelves. R' Attia took off his rabbinic garb and put on a store apron and said - I will work the two hours, let him go back to yeshiva. This was enough to have an impact on the father and he allowed his son to go back to yeshiva where he became Chacham Ovadia.
R' Frand said - but imagine the scene in Shamayim if R' Attia had not done this? R' Ovadia would come for Judgment and be asked - where is the Yavia Omer and what's with Deal, New Jersey and R' Ovadia would have said - what's Deal, New Jersey? This is what was accomplished by taking off an apron.
R' Frand said that we can figure our mission by looking at our strengths and our talents that Hashem has given us and ask - where can I use my talents? We find this by the Mishkan - Hashem says to Moshe in Shemos 31:2 - רְאֵ֖ה קָרָ֣אתִי בְשֵׁ֑ם בְּצַלְאֵ֛ל בֶּן־אוּרִ֥י בֶן־ח֖וּר לְמַטֵּ֥ה יְהוּדָֽה - here I have called out for Betzalel..but there is no pasuk where Hashem specifically called out for him. R' Frand said - by giving Betzalel his talents, Hashem had called out to him.
R' Frand said that what's most important is seeing something that you have a proclivity for, something that you have a passion for and seizing that mitzva. It does not need to change the world, it needs to change you!
R' Frand talked about R' Aryeh Levin who would go on Shabbos afternoons to visit prisons. Not only to visit people thrown in jail by the British, but also common criminals. He once asked his wife, maybe I am spending too much time doing chessed? So he went to the Leshem to ask - maybe I should do less chessed and do more Torah? The Leshem told him, I am not a prophet, but this I can tell you for sure - anyone who busies himself with holy things and is successful and finds satisfaction in what he is doing, its Min HaShamyim that's what he should be doing.
R' Frand said that it may easier for the women to figure out their mission - because raising good, emotionally stable children who are Yirei Shamayim is a life's mission. We see this from the pasuk by Avraham that Hashem says that I chose him and I love him because his life's mission was כִּ֣י יְדַעְתִּ֗יו לְמַ֩עַן֩ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְצַוֶּ֜ה אֶת־בָּנָ֤יו וְאֶת־בֵּיתוֹ֙ אַֽחֲרָ֔יו וְשָֽׁמְרוּ֙ דֶּ֣רֶךְ יְהֹוָ֔ה לַֽעֲשׂ֥וֹת צְדָקָ֖ה וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט - to command his sons and his household to keep Derech Hashem (Bereishis 18:19).
R' Frand said that this can't be accomplished automatically - its not like watering your lawn and expecting them to grow like the grass. It requires constant effort and attention. R' Frand said that there is an expression - he's on a mission. A parent needs to focus on each kid and spend more time with the kid then shopping for the kid.
R' Frand said that you can ask Hashem - tell me what my mission is - don't be bashful, ASK! R' Frand said that a Rav came to R' Shlomo Zalman before the Yamim Noraim and he asked him - do you have poor people in your shul? Yes. Do you have rich people in your shul? Yes. Imagine if they are sitting next to each other in shul and the poor man says - I want to be so rich that the rich man next to me has to work for me. Do you think that's possible? Yes, because we see that Chana wanted a son and she davened to Hashem for a son like Moshe & Aharon. R' Shlomo Zalman said - is she crazy? She had no children for 19 years - she should have just been davening for a healthy baby. But she went for the gold and asked for a son like Moshe & Aharon - because the Yamim Noraim is a reset [my word] everything stars from zero and the rich can be poor and the poor can be rich - so just ask!
R' Frand said we are compared to angels on Yom Kippur and that even the angel Samael needs to say nice things to Hashem about us Yom Kippur. He says that like angels dont need food or shoes, the Jews don't need it on Yom Kippur. And then he says something odd, the same way that we don't jump, the Jews don't jump. What does that mean? The Derisha explains that just as the angels know their mission, the Jews know their mission and they don't jump around from place to place and thing to thing.
R' Frand said that Maftir Yonah was instituted to remind us about our mission. He quoted the Mishna Berurah which explains that our neshama comes down to fulfill a mission and if it does not, it comes back time and again until its accomplished. This was Yonah - he tried and tried not to fulfill his mission, but it needed to be done. And our neshamos dont want to keep coming back time again, but they will because they need to fulfill their mission.
R' Frand quoted a Gemara in Taanis which states that R' Broka was in the marketplace and Eliyahu HaNavi used to come to that market. He asked Eliyahu - is there anyone in the marketplace who is a Ben Olam Haba? Eliyahu said no. But then he saw a man who was not even wearing tzitzis and Eliyahu HaNavi said that he is a Ben Olam Haba. R' Broka approached him and asked - what is your job? He said, I am a jailer, and I make sure that the men and the women stay separate and if I see that someone has an eye on a Jewish girl, I make sure to protect her. This man was not a Rosh Yeshiva or possibly even a learned man, but he fulfilled his mission and is a Ben Olam Haba.
R' Frand told a story about a businessman who went to a city without much Jewish life for business. When he finished his business he found a restaurant with a good Hashgach and went for a meal. When he got there he saw a strange thing - kids would come in off the street, grab a kippah from a box and a soda from the fridge and then make a beracha and drink the soda and then say Shema Yisrael.
The businessman asked the store owner about it and he explained - I would see these public school kids hanging out and doing nothing. So I told them, come in and put on a kippa and have a soda and say a beracha and Shema and its on the house. Some of these kids became frum and have gone on to yeshiva. And I would not sell this business for a million dollars.
A restaurant owner having an impact with a bottle of soda - that's a mission.
R' Frand quoted a gemara in Berachos which states that when sages left each other they would give a beracha to each other - you should find olamecha. R' Frand quoted R' Schwalb who explained - you should find what is your hidden potential before you leave this world.
R' Frand talked about reading the tombstones when visiting cemeteries. He talked about seeing the tombstone of R' Chaim Soloveitchik. What's written on it after his name is Rav HaChessed - he was a social worker - anyone who needed would come in and sleep in his bed, and it did not matter to him. We will never write his seforim, he wanted to inspire us to do chessed.
R' Frand talked about the tombstone of R' Akiva Eiger. It does not say anything about the seforim he wrote. Instead he asked that it be written that he accepted yesurim all his days. His message is to not to be overcome by yesurim.
R' Frand said that he gave this speech in Brooklyn and an old man came over to him and showed him his wife's tombstone which said the same things. She had terrible arthritic hands, but she cooked for others and knit baby blankets with arthritic hands.
R' Frand said that we can find our mission in the strangest places. And while we ask at the end of Yom Kippur that we be forgiven without sustaining yesurim, we can learn from R' Akiva Eiger how to conduct ourselves if that's part of our mission.
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