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 this week's Parsha, the Torah repeats Avraham's conversation with Hashem, wherein he davens to save the people of Sodom. The Medrash Rabbah ties the prayer to a pasuk in Tehillim 45:8 which reads "You love righteousness and hate wickedness, therefore has Hashem, your Hashem anointed you with oil of joy from among your peers." The Medrash Rabbah states that the subject of the love of righteousness was Avraham who prayed for Hashem to save Sodom. In so doing Hashem was saying even though Avraham himself loves what is right and hates what is wrong, when Avraham petitioned on behalf of the people of Sodom, you love to give a zechus to save My creations and hate to discuss their evil deeds.
R' Frand opined that one would think that since Hashem was about to destroy Sodom, he would say to Avraham - what are you doing? But even though that was Hashem's decree, he praised Avraham for trying to save His creations. And when a person tries to teach a zechus for Klal Yisrael, Hashem truly appreciates.
R' Frand mentioned a story involving R' Levi Yitzchak M'Barditchev. He once passed by a Jew who was oiling a wagon while wearing tefillin. While other people looked on in disgust, saying how can he oil the wagon, while wearing tefillin, R' Levi Yitzchak said - who are like Your people, even when they oil the wagon they wear your tefillin. Hashem appreciates this limud.
R' Frand also told a story about R' Yosef Chaim Zonnenfeld who once walked by a Chiloni school and saw children playing in the playground. He gave a beracha - that Hashem should multiply them by a thousand. The people who were with him asked how he could say this? He responded that he was talking to Hashem, but when talking to them you give them mussar. But there is no contradiction. To them, we want change. But Hashem loves when we praise His children to him.
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