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[Dvar Torah] Va’era

This week’s parsha, Va’eira, to me raises three important questions:

  1. Are leaders allowed to fail?
  2. Should a failing leader just give up?
  3. Should any one of us give up when we fail? 

And I believe that the parsha might answer all these questions.

In the beginning, Moshe’s mission to the Israelites seemed successful, as his brother Aaron spoke on his behalf and Moshe performed miracles. The people listened to Moshe and believed him, but then things started to go wrong. Pharaoh refused to recognise G-d and rejected Moshe’s request to free the Israelites and to let them go. At some point the Israelites turned against Moshe and Aaron, accusing them of making things even worse. As Moshe complains to G-d, “And since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he did evil to these people”.

Moshe and Aaron then returned to Pharaoh to renew their request, and through them G-d performed miracles:  turning Moshe’s staff into a snake and bringing the first of the 10 Plagues. However, Pharaoh was unimpressed and refused to let the Israelites go. Nine times, Moshe did everything in his power to make Pharaoh relent, but nothing made a difference. The Israelites were still slaves. 

Moshe was anxious and angry and asked G-d why He had brought trouble on the people and not rescued them. Even when G-d reassured Moshe that he would eventually succeed, Moshe was doubtful and  it almost made him want to quit.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks discusses this approach of Moshe and says that there is an enduring message here. Leadership, even the very highest order, is often marked by failure. The first Impressionists had to arrange their own art exhibition because their work was rejected by the Paris salons. Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime (despite the fact that his brother, Theo, was an art dealer).

So it is with other great leaders. Lincoln faced countless setbacks during the Civil War. He was a deeply divisive figure, hated by many in his lifetime. Gandhi failed in his dream of uniting Muslims and Hindus together in a single nation. Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, accused of disloyalty and regarded as a violent troublemaker. Only in retrospect do heroes seem heroic and the many setbacks they faced reveal themselves as stepping-stones on the road to victory.

Defeats, delays and disappointments hurt. They hurt even for Moshe. So if there are times when we, too, feel discouraged and unmotivated, it is important to remember that even the greatest people, like Moshe failed. What made them great is that they kept going and, in the end they succeeded just like in Egypt, when G-D finally freed the slaves. The belief in Hashem, helps overcome the failure by knowing that in the end, there will be a success. 

Thank you, and Shabbat Shalom.

Ariel, Grade 10