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 related to the timing of Sarah's death. Rashi on the first pasuk of the Parsha quotes a famous Medrash which states that the Satan told Sarah about the Akeidah and she died. R' Frand mentioned a new Sefer called Nahar Shalom by R' Reuven Feinstein which quotes R' Ya'akov Kaminetsky as saying that a person could have thought that if Avraham had not brought Yitzchak on the altar, Sarah would not have died. This is heretical - Hashem has determined how long a person will live.
R' Feinstein adds that it is important for people to know that the act that a person took (or did not take) is not the reason that someone else died. There are often recriminations when someone who cared for an older person took a vacation and the elderly person died while being cared for another. To think that if you did not go away, the person would not have died is Kefirah.
R' Frand mentioned a story which he had told several years ago in the 2018 Teshuva Derasha. The story can be found in a sefer by Esther Stern about R' Michel Feinstein whose daughter was having an asthma attack. They looked high and low for the child's nebulizer but could not find one and the child died before the ambulance could get her to the hospital. In preparing for the funeral they found 3 nebulizers under the child's bed and were inconsolable. How could they have missed it? R' Yaakov Galinski, the maggid of Yerushalayim came to be menachem avel. He reminded him of what they had learned together in the Lamzer Yeshiva - a person is required to do hishtadlus about the future. But after something has transpired a person should not feel remorse about the past. And to say what if I had done this or this (what he called coulda, shoulda, wouda) is heresy. For whatever His reason is, Hashem said that it was time for that girl to die and sometimes Hashem gives people the sechel to make the wrong decision. This gave R' Michel Feinstein solace.
R' Frand a second vort which began with the observation that there is no Hebrew word for ambivalence. He quoted R' Jonathan Sacks who said that while there is no word for ambivalence, but there is a note - the Shalsheles. This note is an indicia of ambivalence. The first time we see it is in Bereishis 19:16 where the Torah writes about Lot - וַֽיִּתְמַהְמָ֓הּ. He was on the fence, he wanted to stay in Sodom and be a Judge there and contribute to society. At the same time, the angels were telling him that it was time to go as the city would be destroyed.
The second time we see it is in this week's Parsha in Bereishis 24:12 where the Torah says about Eliezer - וַיֹּאמַ֓ר. He was davening to Hashem to help him fulfil his mission in finding a mate for Yitzchak, but at the same time, he was hoping that his daughter could be the wife of Yitzchak. He was torn between being the loyal servant and wanting his daughter to be the wife of Yitzchak.
The final time in Sefer Bereishis involves Yosef who is being tempted by the wife of Potiphar. The Torah states in Bereishis 39:8 - וַיְמָאֵ֓ן. Yosef was all alone and without any support system and here was a beautiful woman who desired him. He could give in to his desire, but in so doing he would give up his standing in his family and the Jewish future. The Medrash says that Ya'akov appeared to him and said - if you do this, you won't be on the Choshen. This is ambivalence.
R' Frand said that R' Sacks closed the vort by observing that the Jews of pre-WWII Europe had the same ambivalence. They saw how things were developing and were on the fence about whether they should leave. Those who did leave were saved and many of those who stayed were killed.
R' Frand said that if you look at what is going on now in the US and what the Democrats are saying they would like to do to the State of Israel, you can only hope that we will not need to make the same choice.
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1 comment:
I was directed towards this blog by Rabbi Avraham Bukspan, and I appreciate his recommendation- especially since you gave my father in law's sefer a plug. It is actually an amazing sefer, and, as is everything he says, very deep behind an ostensible simplicity.
As it happens, many years ago I reached out to my readers asking for recommendations for beer and herring pairings. I was disappointed that nobody had anything to suggest. There was one that I liked, Anchor Steam and Vita Tidbits, but Anchor Steam is no longer being made. Perhaps you, what they now call a cicerone, will have good advice.
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