Tafasta m’ruba lo tafasta, “Attempt to much and you will gain nothing. This is Sage advice from the pages of our past, the Talmud. In another inside elsewhere the Talmud, “The person who does not increase, decreases.” Both ideas suggest a middle ground.
Most of us know that Jerusalem was not built in one day. Rather, a whole body of literature and philosophy and dreams were soundly in place before the thought of building the holy city ever entered King David’s mind. Most of us also realize that the greatest accomplishments in life take time. If we attempt too much in a single moment we may lose it all. If we attempt nothing. we have nothing, I have nothing. Worse, we forfeit what we might have had. We are all familiar with people who have long since taking on personal challenges, risks; they atrophy mentally and then physically. There is no such thing as standing still: we either advance or retreat.
This approach has been one of my emphases in my tenure as Rabbi. I have sought to instill a sense of continual personal and communal growth and a steady but slow pattern of forward movement.
Find where you are on the latter of Jewish observance and try edging up a notch. You may even choose to go just 1/2 step. That is fine too. What is important is that your eyes are focused in front of you.
By the way, there was another statement in the Talmud that I think is instructive, tafasta m’utea tafasta, "Attempt a little and you have it."
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