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Self Reliance
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Resource Type: Peula in: English
Age 15 - 17
Group Size 10 - 55
Estimated Time: 45 minutes
TVA_sicha 5_self reliance.doc
(48 KB)
Goal:
To emphasize the importance of self reliance in building up your own land and creating your own country as compared to the dependence on others which the Jews of the Old Yishuv (who primarily survived on donations from Chutz La'Aretz) represented.Introduction:
There is an opening line to a sicha which starts..."If you and a bunch of friends were planning to settle on Mars, what types of skills would people need in order to create a settlement there?". The answers are generally physical and practical in nature since you are starting from scratch and need the basics in order to survive. The idea of the sicha is not simply to discuss the need for Jews to be involved in physical labor since the type of involvement required will depend on the circumstances involved. Rather, it is to demonstrate that in creating a new society/country there is a need for its' participants to take part in order to succeed and that ultimately the participants must be responsible and accountable to themselves and cannot depend and wait for others to do the work for them.
This was a distinguishing factor in the Jew returning to Pre-State Israel. In all the years in the galut the Jew existed in a non-Jewish environment in which he had no need (or ability) to take charge of anything outside of the Jewish community. Upon returning to Eretz Yisrael the opportunity existed not only to live on the land as a tenant of others but to reclaim and acquire the land through working it and mixing with the soil.
The chalutzim did not only want to settle the land. They also wanted to create a self sufficient society which meant providing all basic commodities, services, and government from within their community (the "Yishuv"). This society required a new attitude and much sacrifice in order to succeed. In the end, the framework established over decades of work enabled the newly formed State of Israel to stand up and survive after its' independence.
Historically, the "Old Yishuv"(see enclosed background information) which had no ambitions of building up the land and creating an independent Jewish State was religious while members of the "New Yishuv" were primarily not religious. For purposes of this sicha that distinction is not relevant. Instead we want to stress the significance of the creation of an 'independent' Jewish State created by the Jews themselves and the need to maintain that independence and self reliance.
Implementation:
The idea of the following peula is to dramatize the ability to accomplish certain tasks through self sufficient means and the actual results visible today due to the commitment of prior generations to affect change in Eretz Yisrael. The sicha should stress the positive side of building up the land and self reliance, and the need that existed at the time, rather than the negative side of those who negated the contributions of the chalutzim.
Split the kvutza into two groups, each with a madrich.
Briefly explain the two groups present in Eretz Yisrael a little over 100 years ago and their beliefs.
Each group should complete their enclosed form, one representing the "old yishuv" and the other representing the "new yishuv", and then bring the kvutza back together and discuss the answers.
Note - The answer sheets will also be used for the following sicha on the religious chalutz.
Project TvA
Self Reliance
Kvutza ________________________ Eda ___________ Tzrif ____________
Madrichim ________________________________________
Group Number One - the "Old Yishuv"
Over one hundred years ago there were two groups of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael. They were the:
"Old Yishuv" - Jews who had been living in Eretz Yisrael for a long time and who:
Lived mostly in a few concentrated areas
Supported themselves largely through donations from chutz la'Aretz
Had little interest in reclaiming the land or working towards the creation of an independent Jewish State
"New Yishuv" Jews who came largely as new immigrants to Eretz Yisrael and who:
Believed in working and reclaiming the land
Felt it was important to support themselves through their own work
Wanted to rebuild Eretz Yisrael and create an independent Jewish State
What if?
Your group is the Old Yishuv
What if there was only one group of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael - your group - and you continued living according to your beliefs. What would Eretz Yisrael look like today? Fill in the following questions and find out.
The year is 1880:
We are members of the "Old Yishuv" and our families have been living in Eretz Yisrael for a very long time. Most of us live in a few cities. We don't work the land and most of us live off contributions which we receive from Jews outside of Eretz Yisrael.
The year is 1995:
Describe what Eretz Yisrael will look like today if the ways of the 'Old Yishuv" had continued:
|
| Yes / No |
The land | Are there people working the land? Is the land growing things? Are there farms? |
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| Explain - |
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|
|
| Yes / No |
Scenery | When you drive through Israel do you see forests, roads and many towns and cities? |
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| Explain - |
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|
State of Israel | Has a Jewish country been created in Eretz Yisrael? |
|
| Explain - |
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|
|
Other differences |
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This form was filled out by____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Project TvA
Self Reliance
Kvutza ________________________ Eda ___________ Tzrif ____________
Madrichim ________________________________________
Group Number Two - the "New Yishuv"
Over one hundred years ago there were two groups of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael. They were the:
"Old Yishuv" - Jews who had been living in Eretz Yisrael for a long time and who:
Lived mostly in a few concentrated areas
Supported themselves largely through donations from chutz la'Aretz
Had little interest in reclaiming the land or working towards the creation of an independent Jewish State
"New Yishuv" Jews who came largely as new immigrants to Eretz Yisrael and who:
Believed in working and reclaiming the land
Felt it was important to support themselves through their own work
Wanted to rebuild Eretz Yisrael and create an independent Jewish State
What if?
Your group is the New Yishuv
What if there was only one group of Jews living in Eretz Yisrael - your group - and you continued living according to your beliefs. What would Eretz Yisrael look like today? Fill in the following questions and find out.
The year is 1880:
We are members of the "New Yishuv" and we are recent immigrants to Eretz Yisrael. We want to work the land and create a Jewish country in Eretz Yisrael.
The year is 1995:
Describe what Eretz Yisrael will look like today if the ways of the "New Yishuv" had continued:
|
| Yes / No |
The land | Are there people working the land? Is the land growing things? Are there farms? |
|
| Explain - |
|
|
|
|
|
| Yes / No |
Scenery | When you drive through Israel do you see forests, roads and many towns and cities? |
|
| Explain - |
|
|
|
|
State of Israel | Has a Jewish country been created in Eretz Yisrael? |
|
| Explain - |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Other differences |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This form was filled out by____________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Background Material:
Adapted from the Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel
Old Yishuv: Palestine's Jewish Communities before 1882.
The old Yishuv, which was maintained predominantly by Jewish charity funds raised in the Diaspora and was committed to a strictly religious way of life, showed no interest in developing institutions of self-government. It was divided into Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities, which had little contact with each other; each community maintained its own religious and charitable institutions. Regarding themselves, as they did, as a purely religious group devoted entirely to the study and strict observance of the Torah, the Jews of the old Yishuv had no political ambitions and saw no need to set up their own self-governing institutions.
New Yishuv: 1882 - 1918
Unlike the Old Yishuv, the pioneers of the New Yishuv regarded themselves primarily not as members of a religious community but as part of a national entity. They sought to develop a Jewish community in Palestine that would not depend on charity but be self-supporting and productive. This attitude, along with the problems and challenges they faced as modern pioneers, led them to develop institutions of self-government in Palestine.
The young pioneers who came to Eretz Yisrael from Eastern Europe with the Second Aliya (1904-1914) linked self-labor to the problem of Jewish labor. Their basic assumption was that each nation acquired the right to its land by working its soil and that the future of the Jewish people in Eretz Yisrael depended on whether a Jewish working class would develop there.
"Conquest of Labor" (Kibbush avoda) - Doctrine developed by the Second Aliya and, in particular, by Hapoel Hatzair, stressing the importance of Jewish labor as the basis for a Jewish society in Eretz Yisrael.
"Conquest of the Soil" (Kibbush Ha'Adama) - Concept in the ideology of the chalutzim of the Second Aliya, complementing their more comprehensive aim of the "conquest of Labor". The "conquest" of the soil meant specifically the acquisition and utilization of the soil of Eretz Yisrael by settling it with Jewish farmers who engaged personally in all branches of agricultural work.. A.D. Gordon taught that devotion to agricultural work would cleanse the Jewish soul of "parasitism", which had infected it as a result of the economic restrictions forced on the Jews by life in the Diaspora. In the Diaspora the Jews were barred from primary economic activities and cut off from direct contact with the soil, and this, above all, stunted their normal psychological development. The tilling of the soil of their old-new National Homeland was considered by Gordon and his followers the basis not only of a viable and balanced national economy but also of the psychological regeneration of the people.
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