A

t first, Moses’ mission seemed to
be successful. He had feared the
people would not believe in him,
but God had given him signs to perform
and his brother Aaron to speak on his
behalf. Moses “performed the signs before
the people, and they believed. And when
they heard that the Lord
was concerned about them
and had seen their misery,
they bowed down and
worshiped.” (Ex. 4:30-31)
But then things start to
go wrong and continue
going wrong. Moses’ first
appearance before Pharaoh
is disastrous. Pharaoh
refuses to recognize God and he rejects
Moses’ request to let the people travel into
the wilderness. Then he makes life worse
for the Israelites. They must still make the
same quota of bricks, but now they must
also gather their own straw. The people
turn against Moses and Aaron: “May the
Lord look on you and judge you! You
have made us obnoxious to Pharaoh and
his officials and have put a sword in their
hand to kill us.” (Ex. 5:21)
Moses and Aaron return to Pharaoh
to renew their request. They perform a
miraculous act — they turn a staff into
a snake — but Pharaoh is unimpressed.

His own magicians can do likewise. Next
they bring the first of the 10 Plagues, but
again Pharaoh is unmoved. He will not
let the Israelites go. And so it goes on,
nine times. Moses does everything in his
power to make Pharaoh relent and finds
that nothing makes a difference. The
Israelites are still slaves.
We sense the pressure Moses is under.
After his first setback at the end of last
week’s parshah, he had turned to God
and bitterly asked: “Why, Lord, why have
You brought trouble on this people? Is
this why You sent me? Ever since I went
to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has
brought trouble on this people, and You
have not rescued Your people at all.” (Ex.
5:22-23)
In this week’s parshah of Vaera, even
when God reassures him that he will
eventually succeed, he replies, “If the
Israelites will not listen to me, why would
Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with
faltering lips?” (Ex. 6:12).

DEALING WITH FAILURE
There is an enduring message here.
Leadership, even of 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 established Paris salons.

The first performance of Stravinsky’s
The Rite of Spring caused a riot, with the
audience booing throughout. Van Gogh
sold only one painting in his lifetime,
despite the fact that his brother, Theo,
was an art dealer.
So it is with 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 27 years in prison,
accused of treason and regarded as a
violent agitator. Winston Churchill was
regarded as a spent force in politics
by the 1930s and, even after his heroic
leadership during the Second World War,
he was voted out of office at the first
general election once the war was over.
Only in retrospect do heroes seem heroic
and the many setbacks they faced reveal
themselves as stepping stones on the road
to victory.
In our discussion of parshah Vayetse,
we saw that in every field — high or low,
sacred or secular — leaders are tested not
by their successes but by their failures.
It can sometimes be easy to succeed.
The conditions may be favorable. The
economic, political or personal climate
is good. When there is an economic

Rabbi Lord
Jonathan
Sacks

SPIRIT
A WORD OF TORAH

Overcoming
Setbacks

42 | DECEMBER 30 • 2021