Slowly but surely, over the past 15 years many of the traditional things that the kibbutz held dear have slowly wittled away. With regard to celebrating festivals, the New Year ceremony and communal meal has long disappeared, and now to my great dismay, the Passover ceremony and communal meal will not be held this year, due to the low numbers of members who have indicated their participation.
About two weeks ago, we were informed that only about 50 people were intending to attend the communal seder, a number that is considered to be too small to make the evening viable, even with a subsidy from the kibbutz to cover part of the cost of the meal. I wrote the following on the kibbutz electronic notice-board in response to a thread that was started by someone complaining about why there should be a subsidy at all.
Unlike some of the participants in this discussion, I don't come from a large family that is used to holding its seder privately. For me, the kibbutz seder (or, at least how it used to be twenty or thirty or forty years ago) expresses the traditional and best way to celebrate the seder, and I must say that the tendency of members to celebrate in their homes in the past few years only harms the enjoyment that I derive from the evening. There's no fun in participating in a seder when more than 50% of the participants are guests, who don't know the customs and traditions of a kibbutz seder. In my humble opinion, the price of the seder is not the central issue here, but the desire - or lack of desire - to celebrate as a kibbutz. The central issue is not the food (that creates the cost) but the experience.
To which someone replied (I think in a sarcastic tone, but it's impossible to know): I apologise if I have harmed your enjoyment because I have decided to celebrate in the bosom of my family.
My final words on the topic were: Generally, there are no private actions of member x that affect member y (I'm not talking about unsocial acts like there were in the past week [a member complained that someone had slashed his car's tyres, maybe because he hadn't parked correctly]). But when the seder is in danger of being cancelled because of the small number of participants, there is a negative influence. It's the same thing when there was the duty driver [someone who used to drive to and from Bet Shemesh in the evenings picking up people, eg here] and private cars: the moment that a certain number of members had cars, the need to use a general service declined below a certain level. As a result, the duty driver system was abolished, and I would not be surprised if there were members who felt the need (or where even forced) to purchase for themselves a private car, as the kibbutz had ceased supplying this service. This discussion started from money but it's a societal issue: apparently we have passed the tipping point at which it's not worth the kibbutz's while to supply a service, and as a result, members are harmed.
No one bothered to reply.
Today we are informed that indeed due to the paucity of participants, the seder will be cancelled. Where am I going to celebrate the Passover this year? There have been a few times when I did not go to the kibbutz seder - and I was miserable. I'll see what my wife has to say on the subject.
The fact that I heard at our last band rehearsal that maybe we will be playing at a reduced Spring festival does not cheer me up.
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 559 | Sumptuous Sunday 6 | Cooking | |
| 1382 | DSupt Banks: Not dark yet | DCI Banks, Peter Robinson |
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