Parsha Va’era: The Flop

Last week, Moses finally agreed to lead. This week, he actually tries. He goes to Pharaoh, does a miracle with a staff turning into a snake, and demands freedom. Pharaoh’s response? He mocks Moses and doubles the workload for the slaves, making their lives miserable. The people turn on Moses, and Moses turns on G-d, basically saying, “I told you I was the wrong guy for this.” The rest of the Parsha is a masterclass in persistence as the first seven plagues begin, and Moses has to keep showing up to Pharaoh’s palace even though he’s getting a “no” every single time.

Moses hits the “First Project Failure” wall hard. He thought that once he committed, things would just work. Instead, his intervention made life harder for the people he was trying to help. This is where most people quit—when the “feedback” is negative and the “optics” are bad. But the lesson of Va’era is that leadership isn’t about immediate results; it’s about the resilience to handle the messy middle. Moses has to learn to stop looking at his own insecurities and start looking at the long game. He realizes that a “no” today doesn’t mean a “no” forever. It just means the system hasn’t broken yet. He moves from being a guy who’s scared to speak to a guy who can stand his ground in the middle of a disaster.