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 

