Making sense of the sedra: Yom Kippur

A few years ago, Shreddies’ manufacturer Kraft Foods went to an advertising agency with a unique request – to reintroduce the Shreddies brand as a leader, without having any news about the product to work with, keeping in mind that research showed that Shreddies’ customers liked the cereal just the way it was.

So, what did the advertisers do?

They rotated the square-shaped Shreddie by forty-five degrees, turning it into two adjacent triangles rather than one square, and called the new product Diamond Shreddies. Real-life market research videos show people finding the triangular shape to be “better”, “crunchier” and “more flavourful”.

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The campaign won the Canadian Marketing Association’s 2008 Best of the Best Award, and two gold medals. More importantly, the square-turned-triangle Diamond Shreddies campaign generated tremendous value for Kraft Foods – an immediate 18 percent increase in baseline sales within the first month alone, and for months thereafter. By turning a square into a triangle, advertisers reintroduced a 67-year-old brand in a first-class fashion and established sustainable profits for Kraft Foods.

While it may sound implausible, it just shows us how a small change can have a significant result.

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This idea is the essence of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.  Experienced correctly and to its fullest, it is divinely imbued with the ability to inspire us to seek forgiveness for our past mistakes and resolve to be better versions of ourselves in the coming year.

However, this uniquely spiritual opportunity can also leave us with feelings of disappointment and anticlimax as we encounter a sense of déjà vu, whereas previously we had holy and pure intentions to change and to grow, and we had great expectations of ourselves, but they came to nothing as we could not sustain our lofty resolutions beyond the first challenge or temptation.

How do we avoid this common and demoralising pitfall?

Rabbi Yisrael Salanter, the founder of the Musar movement of ethical development, taught that “the greatest sound in the cosmos is that of someone changing themselves and growing from it”.  But he would also caution against being overambitious because that sets us up to fail. Instead, he counsels us to be realistic and to employ an incremental step-by-step approach to change. We should not attempt a volte face, or a sharp 180 degree turn but maybe something more achievable like 45 degrees, which, after all, worked so successfully for Shreddies.

Making major changes in our lives is possible, but the best advice is to take it slowly, one step at a time, because no-one can go from zero to hero overnight. As the Gemara teaches: “If you grab too much, you will end up with nothing at all!”

On Yom Kippur, rather than aiming too high and repeatedly missing, we should take mindful, deliberate steps that can be easily integrated into our life, and then, with God’s help, we will see sustainable results that will taste sweeter than any breakfast cereal.