"Who Saw Who Heard About the Ten Dibrot" Israel Ring

From: "Who Saw Who Heard About the Ten Dibrot" Israel Ring

"The Shomer is"…
In my opinion, it is possible to understand this phrasing both as a portrayal of an ideal and as road signs. It doesn't have absolute dictations or commands for immediate and complete performance. It isn't the phrasing of a dictating indoctrination, but of educational guidance.

In other words: the ten dibrot admit the difference between the current state and the desired state, and try to motivate those who believe in them to lift the level of reality to the height of the desired vision. They do not ignore the justified fear, that there will forever remain a gap between the two levels – between the goals and those climbing towards them. But because of this the movement is not willing to give up the climbing in itself.

It is clear that we are entering here a conflict with a view of the world. An opposite view would claim that it is better to teach young people to quickly adjust to the existing situation. It is better not to delude them, not to motivate them to unrealistic objectives.

In general, the entire issue of emphasizing the desired state over the realistic state is dangerous. It does not let people appreciate modest achievements and to accept themselves the way they are; it causes disturbances and revolts. It would be better to state "The Shomer is"… and immediately list qualities which help the teenager to make a career in the given society. For example: "The Shomer is bright and careful". "The Shomer knows to calculate his profits against his losses". "The Shomer will help out people who might pay him back with help", and such.
Instead, what do the dibrot induce? They urge youngsters to aspire high and fail in life! To be a man of truth!! To live in chalutzic purity!!

We must openly admit the terrible crime: it is true, a Shomer is a pretentious, ambitious, climbing creature, a person who is not willing to calm down in front of the TV, in the back seat of a car, in daddy's bank account or in the clouds of temporary intoxication of the last fashionable drug. The Shomer wants to go far. He wants his youth to be a starting point to leadership. He wants to know what this leadership is at this time, how it can be achieved, actualized, lived. He demands much from himself and his companions. He does not want to be smug. He doesn't want to relax in a fictitious shelter.

The Shomer wants to understand very real things, very fatal things: how it is possible to create a more significant life, how it is possible to change for the better – himself, his nation, the world.

This is the ideal of those on the road, trying to realize themselves for over 60 years already. It is an ideal that – even as it has matured into "old age" – has not put to shame the ambitious youth who created it. In fact, the historical Shomer took in complete seriousness Buber's famous saying: "youth is the eternal chance for the happiness of humanity".

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So let it be clear, folks: Hashomer Hatzair isn't a youth club; isn't a saloon community; isn't a dance club; It is a pioneering youth movement that has to swim against the stream, and does its part to rescue these people from second exile within the homeland, from sick materialism, from destructive economic parasitism, from white-outside and dirty-inside collars, from fancy and empty declarations that hide a bulldozer expanding deadly gaps between rich and poor, between ethnic groups, between people. Whoever thinks only of maneuvering his independence and of pampering his bellybutton, and all of the above is boring for him – his place isn't in Hashomer Hatzair.