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 began this week's parsha vort by noting the apparent contradiction between the Kohain Gadol not wearing gold when he entered the Kodesh Kodashim on Yom Kippur and the fact that it was Aharon himself who served as Kohain Gadol while the Jews were in the desert. If the reason that the Kohain Gadol did not wear gold was because the prosecutor (i.e. gold being a reminder of the sin of the golden calf) cannot be the defense attorney, then why was Aharon entering in the first place? After all, he was intimately involved in the creation of the Egel?
R' Frand answered by quoting R' Boruch Sorotzkin who explains in his sefer HaBina V'ha Bracha that Aharon was well suited to serve as Kohain Gadol because he took the sin on himself. Having seen that the Jews had already killed Hur for not going along, Aharon stood up and said "its on me" (I am pretty sure R' Frand used those specific words). Since Aharon was involved in the sin as a way to prevent the Jews from being punished, he was worthy to stand on behalf of the Jews on Yom Kippur to seek forgiveness from Hashem.
R' Frand also said a second vort from the same sefer in connection with Moshe's actions. Again, he asked a famous question - at the time that Moshe came down from Har Sinai he knew that the Jews had already been worshiping the Egel. So why did he bring the Luchos down? Why couldn't he have just left them up on the mountain?
R' Frand answered in the name of R' Sorotzkin that Moshe knew that the Jews had sinned, but he thought that he could "come down and give them a Musar Shmooze" and then they would do teshuva. However, once he came down from the mountain and observed that they were dancing with the Egel and pointing at it as a deity, he had to break the luchos.
R' Frand also mentioned that there was a parallel to the concept of Sotah. A woman who is unfaithful but wishes to stay with her husband and does not want to admit to the infidelity will drink the water which is mixed with the erased ink from the Sotah scroll. So too, the Jews who were unfaithful in that they worshiped the Egel, were given the ground up Egel in water to drink by Moshe.
R' Frand said a powerful thought on the Covid-19 virus, but I am not ready to summarize it tonight. But I (Neil) do wish all the Cholim a refuah sheleima and hope that we will all return to our shuls and schools Bimheira Biyameinu.
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