The principles of Kvutza Shomrit
Hanan Erez
The Intimate Kvutza
A kvutza that sees the heart of its existence in the shape of the relationships between people. A kvutza that introspects the intimate relationships within it. A kvutza that creates and experiments with the creation of alterative relationships to those in the society, tries to act its values and exemplify them towards outer society.
The Learning Kvutza
Learning is what creates the ideological fertile ground for shaping the kvutza's common life and mission. It is not an intellectual entertainment or enrichment per se, for it is always directed inwards, to the lives of the members of the kvutza by placing questions and insights in front of them.
What do we want to accomplish from learning? Four central layers:
The first is sharpening the consciousness – sharpening our tools for knowing the world outside ourselves, understanding it, analyzing it and finally deciphering it.
The second is searching through exposure to the abundance of ideas and ways of action.
The third: Learning with company; in other words, improving the kvutza experience by learning together.
The fourth: Creating common language; only common insights will lead to a common change.
The kvutza learning must always be relevant to its members and its madrich. This applies to both the contents and the method: The contents must be related to the chanichim's lives and questions, and the methods need to be a vivid variety of learning tools which lead to as many strengths as weaknesses: One finds himself in sports, the other in philosophy and the third in intimate soul conversations.
The Autonomous Kvutza
There is no shortage of stories where a kvutza has been built and actualized around a charismatic madrich figure or a great idea. This is not the place to describe it; I will only say that a kvutza's autonomy is a necessary condition for the development of its individuals.
What do I mean by autonomy? There are two aspects to it:
First of all, there must be an ideological and perceptional autonomy. By this I don't mean shirking our (the madrichim) commitment to leading and educating towards something. Not to place absolute axioms, but to give tools for interpreting reality with criticism and through the lens of a humanistic, shomeric perspective and ideology. For us, the madrichim, the aspiration should be discussing with our chanichim true moral arguments.
The second aspect is the practical one. An autonomous kvutza is its own leader, it creates and dreams up for it self; A kvutza that chooses its existence and way of being independently, conducts it self in a democratic and communal way, for its autonomy must lay in every chanich or chanicha within it.
The Kvutza with a Collective Mission
The action/mission aspect in the shaping of a shomeric kvutza is one of its foundation stones and one of the core shomeric ideals in general. The common mission is the realization of the joint responsibility a kvutza has over the society surrounding it, and it is also what holds the kvutza from sinking into it self. A kvutza that denies this idea risks an inner degeneration and sins by being apathetic to society.
The kvutza mission rises from its members’ founding values and their analysis of society, and it must nurture leadership and affinity to society.
Hanan Erez
The Intimate Kvutza
A kvutza that sees the heart of its existence in the shape of the relationships between people. A kvutza that introspects the intimate relationships within it. A kvutza that creates and experiments with the creation of alterative relationships to those in the society, tries to act its values and exemplify them towards outer society.
The Learning Kvutza
Learning is what creates the ideological fertile ground for shaping the kvutza's common life and mission. It is not an intellectual entertainment or enrichment per se, for it is always directed inwards, to the lives of the members of the kvutza by placing questions and insights in front of them.
What do we want to accomplish from learning? Four central layers:
The first is sharpening the consciousness – sharpening our tools for knowing the world outside ourselves, understanding it, analyzing it and finally deciphering it.
The second is searching through exposure to the abundance of ideas and ways of action.
The third: Learning with company; in other words, improving the kvutza experience by learning together.
The fourth: Creating common language; only common insights will lead to a common change.
The kvutza learning must always be relevant to its members and its madrich. This applies to both the contents and the method: The contents must be related to the chanichim's lives and questions, and the methods need to be a vivid variety of learning tools which lead to as many strengths as weaknesses: One finds himself in sports, the other in philosophy and the third in intimate soul conversations.
The Autonomous Kvutza
There is no shortage of stories where a kvutza has been built and actualized around a charismatic madrich figure or a great idea. This is not the place to describe it; I will only say that a kvutza's autonomy is a necessary condition for the development of its individuals.
What do I mean by autonomy? There are two aspects to it:
First of all, there must be an ideological and perceptional autonomy. By this I don't mean shirking our (the madrichim) commitment to leading and educating towards something. Not to place absolute axioms, but to give tools for interpreting reality with criticism and through the lens of a humanistic, shomeric perspective and ideology. For us, the madrichim, the aspiration should be discussing with our chanichim true moral arguments.
The second aspect is the practical one. An autonomous kvutza is its own leader, it creates and dreams up for it self; A kvutza that chooses its existence and way of being independently, conducts it self in a democratic and communal way, for its autonomy must lay in every chanich or chanicha within it.
The Kvutza with a Collective Mission
The action/mission aspect in the shaping of a shomeric kvutza is one of its foundation stones and one of the core shomeric ideals in general. The common mission is the realization of the joint responsibility a kvutza has over the society surrounding it, and it is also what holds the kvutza from sinking into it self. A kvutza that denies this idea risks an inner degeneration and sins by being apathetic to society.
The kvutza mission rises from its members’ founding values and their analysis of society, and it must nurture leadership and affinity to society.
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