Help me find a Jewish fable about bluffing in a negotiation
December 19, 2014 5:57 AM Subscribe
When I was young, I remember reading a Jewish fable, or maybe even many different versions of a fable, about a wily trickster who outwits someone or something who is holding him or his community hostage. It might have been Herschel or Hillel, but whoever it is, he succeeds by bluffing that he is going to do something awful if he doesn't get what he wants.
Importantly, he does it without lying, by threatening something along the lines of "you don't want me to get angry" or "you don't want to see what I do when I get angry" or "I don't want to get angry". It turns out to be an empty threat, because he is incapable of doing anything other than simply getting angry, but still technically true, because he truly doesn't want to be unhappy. Help?
Importantly, he does it without lying, by threatening something along the lines of "you don't want me to get angry" or "you don't want to see what I do when I get angry" or "I don't want to get angry". It turns out to be an empty threat, because he is incapable of doing anything other than simply getting angry, but still technically true, because he truly doesn't want to be unhappy. Help?
Best answer: I'll do what my father did?
posted by likedoomsday at 6:12 AM on December 19, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by likedoomsday at 6:12 AM on December 19, 2014 [5 favorites]
Herschel of Ostropol? I learned about him from the book Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:12 AM on December 19, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 6:12 AM on December 19, 2014 [3 favorites]
Thirding Herschel of Ostropol.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:56 AM on December 19, 2014
posted by ryanshepard at 6:56 AM on December 19, 2014
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posted by lharmon at 6:10 AM on December 19, 2014