Page 10 - Issue 8

So its 12:30…Friday night. It’s Habo time. It’s that time when we all get an opportunity to come
together as bogrim at the bayit. People come over and make themselves at home, use the dishes and
never wash them, eat our food and never replace it but hey, we’re ok with that because we all know why
you guys come and it’s so worthwhile. Those peulot. The Zionism, the Judaism, the talks, the yoga, the
education on South Africa ……the nargilah???

So where was I? Ah yes, 00:30. Friday night. Chaverim are engaging in issues that are relevant to us as
Jewish South African youth, whilst at the same time, in a room not so far away, people are engaging in an
issue relevant to killing themselves physically and intellectually by manically sucking on a pipe. Phallic?
Yes. Soothing? Maybe. Habonim? No!

Friday night is the night of the week where Habonim Dror chaverim gather to educate themselves on
issues pertinent to them. It is an opportunity to stimulate oneself intellectually. For some, it is a night
more spiritual in nature, as it represents one of their few connections to Judaism. This culture of self
education and spiritual enrichment is the life force that sustains Habo South Africa. As this culture
fades, so our ideals and values fade with it. As it strengthens so the movement leaps forward powerfully.
If we are not constantly educating ourselves then how is it possible to stay relevant in our ever changing
society?

Nargilah represents all that is wrong with Habo South Africa. The quick addictive fix. An abandonment
of ideological debate in favour of meaningless chit chat. Smoking instead of education. When I see
people piling into the bayit on a Friday night only because they need a place to smoke I stop and wonder,
“Are these people the next leaders of Habonim?” Here’s the scary thing. They are. The nargilah club of
Habo Cape Town is not made up of the irrelevant and the average but rather the potential powerhouses
of the movement. Yet, they forsake the continuation of their Habo education in favour of a few
meaningless minutes sitting around a hookah. The nargilah culture does not build ideologically strong,
inspiring bogrim but rather stimulates a culture of disinterest in core issues and a disinterest in Habo
values.

The Friday night meeting is a place to build movement identity and to educate oneself. It is not a place
to smoke oneself into oblivion. Those who see Friday nights as a smoke-up need to look hard at
themselves and ask how seriously they actually take the movement. Do they see it as important to
educate themselves in line with Habo values or do they rather see it as important to get a head rush off
a nargilah?

I, for one, will be sitting in the Bayit lounge at 00:30 this Friday, listening to the peulah planned by our
Roshei Bogrim. Truthfully, without it I would simply be one of those notorious spoilt, white, Jewish kids,
with an air of entitlement and no clue as to what is going on in my Jewish South African world. If Habo
South Africa is serious about creating a culture counter to that of our peers, then it is time to put away
the nargillah and sit down in the Bayit and engage in some traditional Habo education.

Yoni Bass, HDSA