The saying goes that all beginnings are difficult.
As true as this may be, it is not nearly as difficult to begin as it is to continue – and that is the challenge faced by the second generation, the generation that cannot be innovative, that must not be innovative.
It must only continue, and it can only succeed in this by marshaling the strength and the power of renewal.
Compared to continuing, beginning is easy; reaching the finish line is easy as well.
What is truly difficult is to continue after the enthusiasm of the beginning has passed.
For some people, the excitement of the new lasts for five years; for others, it lasts only five months or five minutes.
But no matter what, the excitement ultimately ends and a question presents itself: What happens next?
–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz