Our siddur has lots of instructions related to dates and times - additions for Shabbat, special lines for holidays, versions of prayers to say in the morning vs. in the afternoon or holiday, things to add, things to subtract...but there’s one that sticks out. December 4th.
December 4th is a secular (Gregorian) calendar date, yet it has a place in our siddur. In the amidah we are given the instruction:
From December 4 until Pesach, we say the following line.
טַל וּמָטָר לִבְרָכָה (dew and rain for a blessing)
How did it get to be that we use December 4th as the demarcation point for this part of the
amidah blessing? It goes all the way back to Mishnaic times. In In a baraita (Ta‘anit 10a), it’s explained that while the Jews in Eretz Yisrael begin praying for rain on the 7th of Cheshvan (this gives them time to get home from the Jerusalem pilgrimage) that's not how it is done everywhere. Hananiah, who had lived in Babylonia, reported “But in the Golah, [one waits] until the
sixtieth day from the [autumnal] equinox.” The reason for this difference is not stated in the baraita, but the assumption is that this timing was driven by the desire to finish the harvest in Babylonia, which was a later harvest than Eretz Yisrael, before asking for rain.
Other than knowing this cool Jew-Geek obscure fact, what can we learn from the fact that all these years later we still use the date from the Babylonian exile harvest as the "go point" for when we change our prayers in modern-day diaspora?
In management circles, long-standing practices whose origins are unknown are often seen as a negative, and at times they could be. However, there can be benefits to keeping old traditions and policies, even if you don’t know their origin, if they are accomplishing a goal.
Here are a few ways these long-standing practices are helpful:
Preservation of Experience
Policies often emerge as responses to specific challenges or lessons learned over time. Even if the context is no longer remembered, the policy may still prevent repeating past mistakes.
Organizational/Community Culture
Longstanding policies can provide a sense of continuity, tradition, and identity, which can be stabilizing for an organization or community.
Proven Effectiveness
The longevity of a policy often suggests that it has worked well over time, serving its purpose effectively, even if the original reasoning is unclear.
Efficiency
Longstanding policies often reduce the cognitive load and effort needed to make decisions. People don't have to repeatedly debate or reanalyze situations because the policy provides a ready-made solution, saving time and energy.
Of course, policies shouldn't remain static forever; regular reviews should be done to ensure they still align with current values and goals and if they do, just keep keeping them.
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