Danyot: "My personal story with Kaddish Luz and his family has been peeled off layer by layer over the years."

For the first time, I came to participate as a writer in the book week in Tel Aviv in 2014. Then the event that lasted for 10 days took place in Rabin Square. I didn't let the distance between Degania B and the big city stop me from staying in my new world behind the publishing booth and enjoying literary conversations with readers and getting excited as always by meeting my favorite authors. A decade has passed since then, but there is one question that remains and people from all sides of the reading do not let go of it - 'What is between Daganiya A and Daganiya B?' And especially they want to know 'why' broke up The cereal? What did they fight about?'

Why did Degania A and Degania B break up?

I have answered this question so many times that it always amazes me that there are still people who do not know the answer. Of course, this is my bias to think that if I answered 100 people, they are the whole world... In any case, this is the real answer (and apparently the one that disappoints the yellow scoop thirsty questioner) to the question - what happened between Degania A and Degania B and why are there actually two of them?

Well, nothing happened except for a shared collective Zionist vision. Yes, yes, Daganiya A is the first kibbutz from 1910, and their vision was to populate our country with Daganiyas. Degania B was established after a decade, after which Degania C was also established, which broke the streak, moved to a new location in Israel and today you know it by the name - Geniger. 

Oh, how great is the disappointment on the faces of the questioners. I let the facts spoil a good story for them. No, the grains are not the story of Union-Mohued kibbutzim, which separated on political grounds. You can read the stories of the kibbutzim that allowed politics to separate households atthe red book, of our beloved author friend Assaf Inbari. And in the meantime, I will introduce you to a book that will probably be difficult for you to obtain, but I have spent the last few days looking through it and its stories are a gift not only to kibbutz ex-pats.

His stories are our stories and for beautiful moments I got to listen to the voice of Luz Kaddish Remember Baraka, who besides being a well-remembered politician, was one of the founders of Kibbutz Degania b. In the collection of stories from 1958 - Cereals - I learned his soul and heart through small and exciting stories.

Kaddish Luz and his family

My personal story with Kaddish Luz and his family has been peeled off layer by layer over the years. It actually begins with the 100th celebrations of Degania B, when I settle relatively new, in the beautiful city of Haifa, and now I was given the privilege of being the editor The 100th anthology of Degania b.

There is no better way to learn about a place than through the stories of its people. The project, which lasted for about a year, generously connected me to the kibbutz that I chose as my home. And this is how I opened my words at the beginning of the anthology: "My father, Shihia, told me about Kaddish Luz, remember him blessedly, who received his diplomatic guests in an apron, in the dining room on Shabbat evening, because exactly when they visited him he was on duty." This little story that my father told me, tells so much about this man and the stories of Kaddish Luz, which I read this week in the Deganyot book, only illustrate how sensitive and humble the man was. 

in the story "Guards"Kaddish goes out to the position for a night watch, a few days after the withdrawal of the Arabs from the kibbutz, and waits for his son, the soldier who is his fellow guard. And this is how he describes, ""It will be good", we met at the blessing of the days of the battles. We had a routine conversation between friends, but the father's murmurs rose, and even his peers seemed to humble themselves. He took on the form of a man and took on the form of a boy next to his father, lay down and listened to what was being said. I wanted to express something of what was happening in my heart, But I stopped - my son is tired. I told what I loved: from my first years in Israel. I told and felt that my story Caressing his soul - and as if the wounds that the battles and the blood have inflicted on his soul for months, months. Soon he will close his eyes and sleep... Tonight, I will keep your sleep and I will not wake you up..." I don't know what you feel when you read it, I... my tears are flowing.

"mother"

in the story "mother", while loading carts in the garbage pit, the cartman arrives and hands him a letter. "The letter is from there, from the far away home. As long as mother and father are there - there is home, here - fields and friends, hot sun and early wind, work and battle. There - home, here - the covenant until the end of the forces". Kaddish continues to describe his anguish and concern for his mother while giving birth to a foal during the night. The miracle of nature moves him, he looks at a mare getting to know the soft foal and see what moves the final paragraph: "I came closer. The mare raised her head for a moment, and her eyes were tender and trained. I felt a warm emotion that cannot be expressed. While she was licking the foal - I hugged her neck and kissed her with the word "Mama" on my lips. She raised her head and leaned him on my shoulder.".

I would like to write more and more, but I have not yet reached Kaddish's son, a man I had the pleasure of getting to know, who published over 30 books and was an enthusiastic partner in helping and giving ideas to my work on the 100th anthology. you Hazel deer Or as I affectionately adopted his nickname in the group, Tzvivik, was introduced to me by my partner in this fascinating project. I learned about Degania B from his written stories and the ones he told me when we met. Tzvivik's writing is very different from Kaddish's.

The latter, Kaddish, writes at eye level, his language is lighter and it is clear that he was a man who speaks to the entire nation, while Tzvivik does not give up on us and as he says, you can, I believe in you. Indeed, for me at least, it is necessary to read his stories much more than once for the good news to reach me. For example, his story that won many awards and was translated and went overseas,pigeon hunter", I got to love when I typed it for the anthology file. It's moving, it's deep, it's honest and touching.

And now, a few more years have passed, Tzvivik has been gathered into the bosom of his father and mother and I am visiting the house that was Kaddish's home, then Zvi's and now his grandson's, above. The ability to express words in writing has been passed down from generation to generation. There is a second thread between Kaddish Luz and Nino, even though they did not know each other. Here too, the writing is different, Aili writes in the language of our time, but the emotion remains and just as Kadish made me tear up and move, so does Zvivik and so does Aili in his poems with a sentence like: "The memories of you, that's all that was needed to hold... I miss you, a little excited to meet you." (From: "My Beloved", Eli Chapman). He wrote the song about grandfather Zvi, before his meeting with his beloved wife, after years of her departure, during which he held the house in his hands.

On my last visit to Beit Rabbi Dori, I was drawn to this book that seemed to be called to me from the shelf. Since then I have been thinking about it and am getting reinforcement for the connection between the first two kibbutzim. I'll let Levi Ben-Amati, the beloved poet, editor of the grains, summarize for you in his own words from the editor's words at the beginning of the book: "A collection of village literature. After all, it is an experiment and an examination - and a kind of prayer in private before praying in public - to gather members of the "People of Vet" from only two villages, two sister groups located at the exit of the Jordan from the Sea of ​​Galilee."

Stay or free?

Regarding the question remaining או loose, this time it's a rhetorical question. Assuming I agree to accept the book given to me as a gift, I will leave And I will place him in a place of honor and guard. Danyot for me is a treasure, both of the place where I live today with my family and as the story of Israel as a whole. And probably this is the place to point out that in this file there are other writers from the two fathers of the grains that are worthy and worth reading.

Book details: 

Danyot, a field of life and literature, edited by Levi Ben-Amati, N. Tversky, 1958. 

I wish every person gets to leave their stories for generations.

Pleasant reading and may good words be by your side always,
Lily