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 vort asked why Avram being told to leave his homeland was a test? He prefaced the vort by stating that in Elul 1939, the Brisker Rav travelled from Brisk to Warsaw and eventually Vilna as he fled the Nazis. The Sefer L'Romeim tells a story about how someone observed the Brisker Rav in Vilna and he appeared pensive. The man asked why he seemed concerned and the Brisker Rav explained that he had always wondered why Avram leaving his home was a test. After all, Avram was promised that he would be made famous and wealthy but leaving his home. But now I understand that when a person leaves his hometown he is in Galus and it is difficult to be in Galus. And even though I am waiting to travel to Eretz Yisrael, I am not in my hometown and the house of my father and its a test.
R' Frand observed that everyone has tests and they are difficult. R' Frand quoted the Sefer R' Yehuda Hachasid who said that the foundation of Yiras Shamayim is the test. When a person does not understand why something is happening it is because it is a test. R' Yehuda further states that when Hashem wants to give a person a gift, the Satan comes before Hashem and says - he is not deserving - have You ever tested him? This is why Hashem gives the test and if the person withstands it, Hashem can answer back to the Satan.
R' Frand also told a story about an orphan who went to the Pnei Menachem and said - Hashem is giving me tests and it is like Hashem is putting sticks into my wheels. The Gerrer Rebbi answered - what travels faster - a car or a tank? A tank is slower because it has tracks, but it is equipped to go over anything. While it might be slower, it is a more powerful vehicle. While a person has challenges, it makes the person stronger.
Rabbi Frand began the second vort by noting that when Hashem said to Avram, לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵֽאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ it appears to be out of order in that Avram is told to leave his land, where he was born and the house of his father, when usually a person would first leave his father's house and as he continued to travel would eventually leave the country.
R' Frand answered by quoting the Malbim who explains that this was not merely a physical move - Hashem wanted him to leave the mindset of his environment. In order to change his philosophy, he needed to leave his state, but more than that, his city will have a greater impact on his thinking and he needed to leave that behind. But even more fundamentally is the mindset of his father's house.
R' Frand also told a story of R' Moshe Turkichinsky who was born in Israel and traveled to learn in Slobodka for the summer z'man. Before Shavuous, the Rosh Yeshiva, R Isaac Sherer asked him whether he would be keeping two days of Yom Tov as he was now in galus. R' Moshe did not answer and this was more of a statement than a question, but still he was confused. The halacha is that someone who intends to return to Israel does not do work on day 2, but also davens as if it is Chol.
R' Moshe went and asked the Rav of the city what he should do and was told that he should be davening the Chol davening. When asked again by the Rosh Yeshiva about keeping two days he decided that he would daven in his dorm with tefillin first and then go to the Yeshiva when they davened and no one one would know that he had previously prayed. But then as the Yeshiva was going to daven Maariv to begin the second day, the Rosh Yeshiva approached him and asked him to be the Shaliach Tzibbur. Now he was stuck, how could he lead the Yom Tov prayers?
R' Moshe decided that the only solution was to take upon himself not to return to Israel and become a ben Chutz L'Aretz. He then went up and led davening and recited all of the Yom Tov prayers. When he was done, R' Sherer said to him - I know the halacha that you should only keep one day, but I also saw that your head and heart were not in the yeshiva. You may have been physically in Slobodka, but you were thinking about your birthplace and I needed you to commit to being a bochur here.
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