The following is a brief summary of some of the 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 first pasuk of Parshas Emor it says both the words Emor and V'Amarta. Rashi says that this teaches that adults must teach the children and the Tur says that this is the source of Chinuch in the Torah.The sefer Divrei Yisrael states that if it states Daber and V'Amarta it also could be taught as an instruction to teach since the word Daber is a strong statement --meant for adults and Amar is soft. But R' Frand stated that the lesson is that when you teach children you need to be soft with them. In fact, this is the only time in the Torah that it uses Emor V'Amarta because this must be the approach to dealing with youth.
R' Frand remarked that he does not know how things were in the times of the Torah, but now a parent must be soft and mikarev with one's children. There must be the soft language to not push them away.
R' Frand next quoted a medrash which discussed a will which provided that the money from the estate would only go to the son if he became a shoteh - a fool. The son went and asked R' Yossi B'Rebbe Yehuda and asked --what can I do, I'm not a shoteh and I wont become one. R' Yossi did not have an answer and instead he went to R' Yehoshua Ben Karcha. When he got there, he looked in the window and saw that R' Yehoshua was crawling on his hands and knees and had a pacifier in his mouth and he was crawling after his child. He did not know what to do, he was embarrassed to see this. But R' Yehoshua saw him and said come in. When he brought up the will, R' Yehoshua explained that the son did not want to get married and did not want to act with a child like a parent and be silly. But a parent needs to crawl with his child and stoop to underhand a ball or play in the sandbox. The instruction was --you need to get married and act like a shoteh and do silly things, because that is what being a parent is. You need to do things that get your child laughing and motivated, even if you feel its below your dignity.
R' Frand said a second vort from Vayikra 23:2 which states Aleh Hem Moadai --- these are My Holidays. Hashem gave us a gift of His holidays. But the Jews abused the holidays as it states in the Haftorah of Shabbas Chazon - I hate my holidays with you.
R' Frand quoted the Dubno Maggid who gave a mashal to a person who had several children who became ill. He went and found the best doctor and paid to move him near his house. The doctor came up with a medication and the kids were all healed. There was a recurrence and the doctor was brought back and he made more medicine, but the kids refused to take it because it was too bitter. As time went by, he would see the doctor and scowl at him. The doctor said, what can I do -- I made the medicine and it worked the first time, but the children wont take it again. Its not my fault. The man responded, I know that its not your fault, but every time I see you I am reminded that there is an opportunity for them to get better if they only took the medicine, but they wont. And the fact that they wont take the medicine just kills me and I am remembering this when I see you.
The Dubno Maggid said --these are the holidays when you can come close to me. You are off from work and can come to shul and be enhanced in the yom tov and you wont take advantage of them. They are like the doctor which reminds me of what you could be.
R' Frand quoted the Seforno who notes that the pasuk states Mikraei Kodesh --there are things you can do to make the holidays Kodesh. But if you don't do these things to make yourself and the yom tov elevated and instead its just a feeding frenzy, it wont be Moadai. It would just be Moadechem and these are what the Navi states are despised.
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