Page 14 - Issue 3
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movement in Israel. This also clearly impacts on diaspora Jewry at large, by transforming so many into
pioneering new Jews. On the other hand, if all the current members of Kvutsat Yovel and Kvutsat
Hadera were to go our separate ways in our daily activities (rather than doing movement work), even for
the most legitimate and admirable reasons, then this movement revolution would never get past stage
one.
There are neither rules nor regulations about this matter in the
tnuat bogrim today - each individual and their kvutsa currently
decide about such priorities. There is no rule that we all have to
work in the youth movement, nor in the tnuat bogrim. There is no
rule that we must not study at university. There is no rule that we
can not work in external messimot, nor even that we can not work in
a plain old, alienated, capitalist job / career. There are also no rules
about not having partners and children, nor about playing sports,
nor about watching television, nor playing video games, although
these are all potentially distractions from our revolutionary movement work. Indeed, there are in fact
today kvutsa members who are studying, and who are doing non-movement messimot, and who are
working in plain old capitalist jobs. There are movement members having partners and children, playing
sports, watching TV, playing video games, and generally allowing ourselves to be distracted from our
movement revolution.
Whilst the revolution would no doubt come quicker without such 'distractions', the current reality is
that we are still enjoying the personal freedom to choose how we live our lives, including sometimes
clinging on to some of the flawed bourgeois aspects of our lives, as well as building the movement and
our new society. This can be a very frustrating situation. We each still have plenty more tikkun atzmi to
achieve, and not only is the wider movement vision still far away, but our own personal revolutions -
transforming ourselves from middle class diaspora Jews into socialist Zionist chalutzim - are still far
from complete. However, we will not further our personal processes of tikkun, nor will we further the
wider movement revolution, by legislating rules and
regulations about how we should or should not live our
lives. Rather, we will progress by constantly challenging
ourselves and each other, by learning, by continuing to
be chanichim in some parts of our lives, and by
continuing to be madrichim in other parts of our lives.
By looking honestly and open-mindedly into the mirror
of dugma ishit, and through the feedback we give and
take in our intimate kvutsot and tzvatim, we can improve
ourselves and thus the wider revolution.
The frustrations which we feel with ourselves and with
each other, for falling short of our revolutionary
socialist Zionist aspirations, sometimes get expressed as a call for definition and even legislation. Within
the movement kvutsot in Israel, we are demanding more commitment from ourselves all the time. But we
do not have clear answers to commit ourselves to yet. As more and more kvutsot arrive, norms of
movement life will probably start forming. Questions will increasingly be replaced by answers, as the
initial years of creation will be replaced by stabilisation and even institutionalisation. But we are not
there yet - we are still in the formative questioning period. I hope that movement bogrim around the
world will understand our challenges and frustrations, and appreciate the pioneering opportunities which
this exciting and dynamic time presents for all movement members. The first fledgling kvutsot of the
HDTB should not be perceived (by ourselves or others) as prescribing answers before we have
even finished asking ourselves the questions.