This year unfortunately R' Frand did not give his Teshuva Derasha live from Baltimore and he was hospitalized earlier in the week. Although I did hear that he has been discharged from the hospital, I would ask my readers to have him in mind during their m'sheberach prayers (Yissocher Dov Ben Chaya Bracha). I attepted to summarize the first portion of it in Tuesday's post and am adding a bit more today. As in years past, this is not a verbatim transcript of an hour plus long shiur, but I have attempted to capture many of the thoughts to the best of my abilities. Any inconsistencies are the results of my transcription and should not be attributed to R' Frand.
R' Frand asked - how can we see Hashem in our daily lives? He answered by making reference to the Bila'am story from Parshas Balak. Bila'am wanted to curse the Jewish people and knew the exact time that Hashem got angry and attempted to capitalize on that in order to curse the Jews. But every time that he tried, he was unable to do so and his curses came out as blessings. He tried again and again and was oblivious to the fact that he could not succeed. Because each time, Hashem exercised His will (however that is to be understood) and did not get angry.
But there is more to the story, so to speak. The Jews were completely oblivious to the danger. If you were to ask them what happened during this time, they would say - we sat in the camp, ate manna and learned Torah. They had absolutely no idea that Hashem had saved them. R' Frand quoted the Chassam Sofer who teaches that even Moshe did not know about the incident and he only learned about it through nevuah to write it in the Torah.
The Haftorah of Balak (from Micah) contains a rhetorical statement - what did I do for you? I took you out of Egypt and and sent before you three prophets - Moshe, Aharon and Miriam. Remember what Balak wanted and what Bila'am answered so that you should know the Tzidkus of Hashem.
The Gemara in Berachos elaborates on this, stating that the Jews should know Hashem's tzidkus with them. He did not get mad when Bila'am had attempted to curse the Jews and if He had (G-d forbid) there would be no one left.
R' Frand said think about how many bad things don't happen because of Hashem watching over us. He made reference to the fertilizer explosion which blew up half of Beirut a few years back. Who knows if this prevented an attack with what had been stored at the port, an attack which was avoided because of the Hand of Hashem.
R' Frand quoted R' Sampson Refael Hirsch who noted that when the snakes attacked, it says HaNechashim with a Heh serving as a definite article. Why? Because we needed to know that those snakes were always there, but Hashem prevented them from biting until then.
R' Frand said - the fact that we have a vaccine for COVID now is not because of "warp speed." We need to realize that it was a beracha from Hashem that the scientists were given the wisdom and opportunity to develop the COVID vaccine. He said that when he got vaccinated (by a non-Jewish nurse) he publicly stated Hodo L'Hashem Ki Tov, Ki L'Olam Chasdo.
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