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 the midst of Avraham's "negotiations" to save Sodom and the other cities from destruction, Avraham stops actively negotiating and says to Hashem in Bereishis 18:27 וַיַּ֥עַן אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הִנֵּה־נָ֤א הוֹאַ֨לְתִּי֙ לְדַבֵּ֣ר אֶל־אֲדֹנָ֔י וְאָֽנֹכִ֖י עָפָ֥ר וָאֵֽפֶר. Rashi explains that Avraham uses these terms to thank Hashem as he could have become dust when he fought in the war of the four kings vs the five kings and he could have been turned into ash when Nimrod threw him in the Kivshan Ha'Esh.
R' Frand quoted R' Bukspan (of Parshah Pearls fame) who observes that Avraham was mentioning these things at present even though the events had occurred in the past. In this way Avraham was teaching how to be Makir Tov - by constantly having in focus the good that was done for you.
R' Frand told a story about someone who had been in a massive car accident and walked away without a scratch. The state trooper was amazed and told him that no one walks away from an accident like that.
The man decided that he would learn Mussar every day as a Hakaras HaTov for being saved. But after a year he was no longer keeping the Mussar seder.
Avraham's lesson was that you need to constantly remember the good and not relegate it to the past. R' Frand gave the example of a person who was unemployed for a period of time and then found a job. He was ecstatic when he began the job, but at some point later he felt under appreciated and under paid.
R' Frand also invoked a car commercial for GM from my childhood which asked "What have you done for me lately." He also quoted the late great Pete Rose who famously said - you are only as good as your last at bat.
Avraham was teaching us that this is not the mindset of a Jew.
R' Frand said a second vort related to the Akeidah and specifically the pasuk in Bereishis 22:5 - וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֶל־נְעָרָ֗יו שְׁבֽוּ־לָכֶ֥ם פֹּה֙ עִם־הַֽחֲמ֔וֹר. The Gemara in Kiddushin remarks that they are compared to a donkey, in the sense that much like a donkey does not have lineage, so too if one has a baby with a shifcha or akum, the child does not have his lineage.
The Beis Halevi asks - why does the Torah choose this point in time to teach this law? He answers that Avraham could have had a doubt when Hashem told him to sacrifice Yitzchak - after all, Avraham had been previously told that Yitzchak would be his lineage. Perhaps Avraham was thinking that Hashem had "changed His mind" and that the lineage would be through Yishmael. To disabuse him of this notion, the Torah chose this moment to teach that a child of Hagar could not be Avraham's lineage.
R' Frand next quoted the Pirkei D'Rebbi Elezer in which R' Yehudah states that when the knife was applied to Yitzchak's neck, his soul departed. It was only when he heard from between the Kruvim that Avraham was told not to harm him that Yitzchak's soul returned. At that point Yitzchak recited the bracha of Mechaye HaMeisim.
R' Frand then quoted the Ari who writes that Yitzchak previously had a female Neshama, but when it returned to him after the Akeidah it was male. R' Frand (although with the disclaimer that he is not a Kabbalist) said that this was truly the new beginning for the Jewish people. When Yitzchak had a female Neshama he did not have the ability to procreate, but now he could become one of our forefathers.
R' Frand said that there are times that a person can feel that something is coming to the end, but in reality its a new beginning. He quoted R' Epstein who observed that the Golden Age of Spain ended for the Jews on Tisha B'Av 1492 ... the same day that Columbus set sail for America. And while the Jews of Spain were forced to flee on that day, it was the beginning of the discovery of a nation which would absorb millions of Jews from the 1800s through the Holocaust.
R' Frand closed the vort by observing that the Torah reading on Rosh Hashanah ends with the descendants of Besuel. He said that it always bothered him why the Kriah could not be broken up so that the five Aliyos on Rosh Hashanah could end before this part of Parshas Vayera. But with the understanding of the Ari its clear why the descendants are mentioned. Prior to the Akeidah, Yitzchak was incapable of having children. But after he received a male Neshama he was capable of having children, thus the descendants of Besuel are mentioned because they include Rivka.
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