Change is hard. Change takes time. You move too slow and people vote with their feet. You move to fast and people complain and you may lose your credibility. While there is a place for fast paced change, for the most part increment change is the safest bet.
In today's Daf we get a great model of this incremental change. Faced with a choice of selling a fattened ox to an idolatrous king on his festival day (something forbidden by law) or making the king angry with his failure to give his usual gift (of a fattened ox), Rebbi took the middle ground.
On the first year, Rebbi bribed the king 40,000 coins so that he could break with tradition and bring the cow on the day after the festival. After the king was ok with this, Rebbi decided to change even more the next year. On the second year he bribed the king the same amount so that he might be able to slaughter the cow before bringing it. Finally on the last year the bribed the king so that he didn't need to bring an ox at all.
If Rebbi had changed too quickly, deciding not the bring the cow at all on the first year he would have certainly gotten into trouble. Had the failed to act he would have been going against his morals.
Rebbi is a great teacher. Change is hard, but slow change is often the safest and most effective route.
Monday, August 30, 2010
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