Vayera - 2025

Chevre, this week’s parsha is Vayera (וָאֵרָ֗א). The story of the Exodus continues and we have the first 7 of the 10 plagues. Let’s give some background here, Egypt was one of the super powers of their time. They relied on The Nile River for most of their economic power. And we know during the Roman times, they were the bread basket of the empire. So the fact that the plagues attacked The Nile is not surprising. Blood made the river and all water unusable. Frogs came out of the river and took something that sustained the people into something attacking them. Lice attacked the people who were the workers that made everything happen. Beasts also attacked the workers. The epidemic, as we all know to well, killed the beasts that helped them farm and made the workers unable to function. Boils was another attack on the workforce. And firey hail attacked the crops meaning they wouldn’t have enough food (see what I said above about the Romans).

The Egyptians had everything under attack and in centralized places. They were not using Multi-AZ or Multi-Region architectures which made them vulnerable to the plagues. If they had run on containers that they could auto-scale in several regions, perhaps the plagues would not have been so potent. It’s unlikely that attacks on workers and food sources could happen in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America all at the same time (although the epidemic was global).

I find it interesting to think about the plagues, this year, in economic terms and think about the impact and stress on Pharoah to let his slaves (his workforce) go. I also find it interesting to think about how the Jewish people at the time saw world events as the super power was brought to it’s knees by the plagues. It must have been scary, but remember the plagues did not impact the Jewish people. So they were watching from the sideline.

May we see all the hostages come home speedily. Shabbat Shalom.