Since there are no Rabbi Frand shiurim on the Parsha until Elul, I generally substitute a vort from other Rabbanim each week, rather than leaving the blog without a vort for shabbos. This week, I am attempting to repeat a vort heard from a young maggid shiur in my community - R' Jeff Thurm who gives a great 40 minute parsha shiur at the BTU shul on Thursday nights. Same rules as usual apply - I have attempted to reproduce the 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 the maggid shiur.
R' Jeff began by discussing the famous question of why Hashem instructed Moshe to stop praying to be allowed to enter the Land of Israel and why it was told to him now, after 515 prayers. He gave an interesting answer from R' Tzadok HaCohen who states that Moshe had the power to push Hashem's hand based on his prayers and force Hashem to allow him to enter the Land of Israel. This was based on the Gemara which states that Eliyahu HaNavi woke each of the Avos individually, because had they been awake at the same time, they could have successfully lobbied Hashem for the Ge'ula. Similarly the Gemara discussed R' Chiya who davened so powerfully that it was windy and rained when he said Mashiv HaRuach and was stopped before he could say the beracha of Mechaye HaMeisim.
R' Tzadok explains that some people (Moshe being one of them) could have forced Hashem's hand. Therefore Hashem had to say stop davening, before he caused a change. But why stop him? The Medrash recites a conversation between Moshe and Hashem where Moshe says - if you don't allow me in, history will view me as no better than Dor HaMidbar. Hashem then responds to Moshe, if I allow you in and you lead in the children of this generation, it will be a permanent indictment of the generation of the Midbar. So Hashem says, you need to stop, so history does not look badly at them and you and they will enter Israel after Techiyas HaMeisim.
R' Jeff closed this part of the vort by stating that its a lesson to us that although we may sometimes want something very badly, there are times that Hashem says "no" and we need to accept that He does things for the best for us.
R' Jeff also quoted R' Neventzal who addressed why this occurred now, after the 515 prior prayers. He explained that in preparation for the 516th time, Moshe was going to invoke the 13 middos with the word Avor and we know that Moshe was aware that if the Jews use the 13 middos when they daven, Hashem won't say no. Moshe was preparing to use the "trick" he learned at the Egel and said Ebrah Na - I am going to use the Avor option, so Hashem says stop - dont use the 13 middos as I will have to go against the rule that the 13 middos always work and still say no to you.
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