By Kali Rifkin Silverman

When we last left our hero(s)... Moses is looking at the **promised land** over the banks of the Jordan river and continues his final speech to the Israelites before he dies. And listen, I've been there (metaphorically speaking). I think many of us have.

Picture this: It's your last summer at machaneh (sending support for those this is true for right now), and you're leaving a tafkid you care a lot about. Maybe you're leaving the mitbach and want to impress upon next year's tzevet mitbach your killer organization of dry storage and your revolutionary ordering process. Maybe you're the best amelim madrich there ever was and you have some perfect-for-amelim peulot you don't want to go to waste. Maybe you're the Rosh or Mazkira Klalit and are having a hard time cramming all of your knowledge and experiences into your successor's brain.

And maybe you're a year or two past this stressful transition experience and already know that your work is mostly forgotten, the kids don't even know who you are, no one calls you for help anymore, and the extent of your legacy is the "Scanning Directions" taped above the printer/copier/scanner in the Central Office.

Google Docs are awesome and where would we be without them, but who really reads the full "Transition" google doc/email/article/binder/choveret/etc? There's just so much to read. Let's all be honest with ourselves and each other.

And herein lies the beauty of our youth movement, and at the same time, (one of) our greatest challenge(s): how many pre-written peulot are lying waste in the Cheder Chinuch, chovrot going unread (and lost) on Google Drive, experiences left unlearned from, growth stifled or forgotten, etc.

I'm not here to lecture, I promise.

Our culture is transition. Both in Habonim Dror and as a Jewish people. We retell our stories for a reason - both of the torah, and of special day/chalutz/that kid issue/that one time/etc.

Most organizations think negatively about transition. Oh goodness, how are we supposed to teach "Edwin(a) The New Employee" everything they need to know to do their job?!?! Panic ensues. But for us, that's just May to November, November through July (shoutout to all my Rashim out there), and June/July, etc.

So how is what we do different? Are we setting ourselves up to fail? Or start from scratch again every year? Aren't most baked goods better when made from scratch? Yes, but that's why we have recipes. Aren't most societies/communities/cultures better when created from scratch? No, but yes, that's why we have the Torah. See what I did there?

Ok, so what was even going on in the Torah at this point in transition??

Moses goes, "And now, O Israel, hearken to the commandments that I am teaching you so that you may live and possess this promised land. Do not add or subtract anything to that which I am commanding. Your own eyes have sees that everyone that followed Baal Peor was destroyed. Those of you who remained with God are all alive today.

Next Page >>>