We Didn't Start The Fire - כחו של הנוער

For the chanichim to realize that they should be and stay strong in their ideology and convictions

Peula Bet: The Flow of History

We will start off with a bit of a play, everyone together. We have two “kids” on stage, talking about how they’re going to be when they’re older. Basically, one of them, who we will call Moshe, is ranting about all the things that are wrong in the world, and how he’s going to change them. He wants to go live in Israel in a settlement, wants to unify all Jews, bring peace with the Arabs, help Israel improve it’s handicapped facilities, volunteer in development towns helping out underprivileged kids, etc. His friend is providing slight resistance, saying maybe he won’t be able to do it all. But Moshe is steadfast.

Scene two are the same two, this time at age forty. They’re at a PTA meeting or something in America, and basically, through the conversation, it comes out that  Moshe is still living in America, basically has been living a normal life, has a mortgage on his house, bogged down in his job, and while he still feels ideologically, he has done very little to act on it.

Break up into groups. Above you will find the lyrics to Billy Joel’s 1989 hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” Ask the chanichim if they’re familiar with the song. It’s entirely possible that one kid will be able to sing the whole thing off by heart. (I was able to in ninth grade.) No matter – you can quickly pass it around, or skim it with the kids. The song is basically a history lesson – it goes year by year from 1949 until 1989 and just says some of the big things that happen that year.

                Question: Why did Billy Joel write this song? Okay, we don’t expect kids to know for sure, but perhaps they can guess. The reason Joel gave was that when he was working on the album, he was talking with his kids one day. They said to him something along the line of “dad, you were so lucky. When you grew up there were tons of things going on in the world. There was WWII, there was Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement, all sorts things. We don’t have anything big going on in our lives.” Joel thought about this for a bit and thought how incredibly lucky they were: “What, you guys WANT to live through Vietnam?” Anyways, he began thinking about all the events that had occurred in his life that had shaped the world around him, and how quickly they followed, one after another. And as he jotted them down, he came up with his new song’s lyrics.

                Okay, wonderful story, right? Here’s the bottom line: ask your kids how many of them side with Joel on this issue, and how many side with his kids? Can you understand where both are coming from? Now, if the kids are sharp, they’ll catch on that – there are some generations that have huge, world-shaping events in them, and there are others with different challenges.

                Question: If you were living at any point in history, when would it be? Why? This should get some interesting responses.

                Question: If we were rewriting “We Didn’t Start the Fire” from a Jewish perspective, what would it look like? (No, we aren’t interested in someone quoting the Shlock Rock lyrics “We Have a Strong Desire.”) What events in the past fifty years have shaped the Jewish people? Next, if we had to update the song from 1990 through today, what would be in it? What great events have we lived through? I think that so far in our lives there have been two major events: what happened on September 11^th, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. But certainly there were other major events: The gulf war, the challenger explosion, assassination of Rabin, reunification of Germany, the end of apartheid in South Africa, environmental movements… Specifically as Jews, which events have occurred?

                Question: Going back to Billy Joel and his kids, ask the kids, why is it that Joel took the position he did and his children took the position they did?

                It’s possible to explain this difference as between youth and adults. As far as outlook on life is concerned, how do Adults and Youths differ? This is where the play we began with comes in. Youths tend to have more strength to be ideological, and when we get older, we lose that. Q: Why does this happen? 1. Adults are more proper, and don’t speak their minds as much (for example, the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes.) 2. They haven’t given up hope yet on improving the world 3. They live more for the moment, and less out of practicality 4. They don’t have to worry about making money, as of course you can’t EAT ideology. These are some ideas. The Chanichim may have others. (One quote that comes to mind is “Anyone who is twenty and doesn’t believe in Socialism has no heart. Anyone who’s forty and DOES believe in Socialism has no brain.”)

                So, if kids are so full of ideological strength, why don’t they use their strength? You can ask the kids why THEY don’t do more? (Obviously not in an accusing way, just as a casual question.) Even if some kids may help out here and there, donate time to doing chesed, etc., it isn’t a huge part of their lives like it ought to be. Four reasons why: 1. Belief – when you’re young, it’s hard to have faith in what you believe in enough to sacrifice for it. 2. If you do have strong belief, you might still not follow it vigorously. 3. Unwillingness to work hard. It takes a long time to see results, and this requires a lot of patience and hard work with little to show for it. Not an easy thing to ask of young people. 4. Lack of causes. While last generation had many concrete things to work towards, the establishment of Israel, civil rights, etc, this one has less concrete goals.

So how do we solve this problem? A. How do we stay ideological? B. How do we act on our ideology? You don’t necessarily need to give an answer, but perhaps have the kids make some real suggestions for what they could do, both now and in the future, both individually and as a shevet. As a youth movement, we in Bnei Akiva feel very strongly about the power of the youth, our power collectively, to change the world. One major way that we can keep from losing our ideology is through the strength of the shevet. As a part of a shevet, you have people who support you and give you strength. You see the ideology of your friends, and it gives you strength in your own beliefs. It pushes you, but also encourages you and lets you know that you don’t have to give up the struggle, because your friends are in it with you.

Conclusion: So going back to “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” the main point of the song is that things are always happening, there are continuously battles to fight, the fire never stops. We have battles to fight, and together we can write the next verse of the song.