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.
R' Frand's first parsha vort this evening was about the Ben Sorrer U'Moreh which some translate as "the rebellious son." He began by noting that the Gemara in Sanhedrin contains the opinion that there never has been and never will be a Ben Sorrer U'Moreh.
R' Frand then began an analysis of the famous Rashi which explains that the Ben Sorreh U'Moreh is judged based on what he will become and not what he is now. There is a concern that the child who steals from his parents in order to buy meat and wine will eventually become a highwayman who will kill people in order to take their possessions. Rather than allow him to devolve into that person, he is subjected to death by Beis Din so that he dies before he has committed cardinal sins.
R' Frand then quoted R' Eliyahu Mizrachi who observed that Yishmael was saved when he was crying in the desert after Hagar was cast out by Avraham in Parshas Vayera. The Medrash recounts a conversation between Hashem and the angels, wherein they asked Him, why are You saving Yishmael from death, he will one day come to cause the Jews to die of thirst? Hashem responded to them, but what is he now, a tzaddik or a rasha? They responded that he was a tzaddik as he had not yet sinned. Hashem responded that He was only judging Yishmael based on his current state.
But if so, why is Yishmael different than the Ben Sorrer U'Moreh?
R' Frand's initial answer was that Yishmael did not actually cause the Jews to die of thirst, it was his descendants and a person is not punished for the acts of his descendants.
R' Frand also quoted the Sefer Bei Chiya, which quotes a Gemara in Rosh Hashanah which discusses two people suffering from the same illness or who are condemned to the gallows for the same crime. One of each pair is saved, while the other dies. The Gemara states that the one who is saved is due to his prayers being answered because prayed with whole heart and the other, not. But why does the Gemara give this answer and not that one had zichuyos while the other did not? He answered that the message of the Gemara is that there is a Koach HaTefilah - prayers have power and the one who prayed with a whole heart was able to benefit from the power of his prayer.
This was the reason that Yishmael was saved. It was the power of his prayers which justified his being saved, even if down the road his descendants would make life miserable for so many others.
R' Frand closed the vort by observing that Elul is the time when people should be working on their prayers, much like (l'havdil) the spring training period. A player needs repetition to work on his timing and be in the swing of things. So too a person needs Elul to get his prayers ready for the Yamim Noraim.
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