In the stubborn battle between them, gray reality prevailed over utopia. The last round ended last week, when hundreds of members voted at the polling booths placed all over the kibbutz. When the votes were counted, it turned out that life is stronger than vision: Almost all the members of Kibbutz Degania A (Aleph) voted against the cooperative way of life that was practiced for almost 100 years there, and ratified its replacement with an innovative system that is remarkably similar to the change taking place in Israeli society - a change that has become more powerful during the past two decades.

As cruel as it sounds, the members validated the socioeconomic model whose foremost advocate in the country is none other than Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu. Here is his philosophy in a nutshell: The most vital element in a society that aspires to life is the working person, the productive person, the person who earns and the person who earns even more. People who are weak, ill, dependent and nonproductive are a human blight that is liable to bring down society. Therefore the former should be encouraged and nurtured like costly diamonds, and as for the others, minimal support systems should be created, which will enable them to survive.

"It's not pleasant to admit it, but Bibi has won," admitted Prof. Yehezkel Dar, an educator and kibbutz member.

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Nevertheless, while Netanyahu's unbridled market economy has crushed thousands and created poverty and distress, the architects of the reforms in the kibbutz - which were implemented on a trial basis during the last year - made sure to cushion the living conditions of the weak and dependent, so that they will be able to age in a dignified way.

"I wish my father who lives in the city would receive the same conditions as the elderly people on the kibbutz," said the kibbutz secretary, Shai Shoshani, whose full title is now "chairman of the board." "I would say even more than that: I wish that every elderly, ill or unemployed person would receive even a small part of what they receive on kibbutz. In spite of the revolution we have brought about, we can regard our achievements on Kibbutz Degania with pride."

Throughout this losing battle, between the old and the new, between reality and utopia, the spirit of A.D. Gordon was felt in the air. Although he died a long time ago and is buried in the kibbutz cemetery, the members felt that he was still keeping a critical eye on the behavior of his heirs - and both sides tried to enlist him. "I have no doubt that he was with us," explained Shoshani, one of the leaders of the reform. His friend Dar was sure that had Gordon been alive, "he would have appeared as a witness for the defense" - as he put it.

During the course of the revolution in kibbutz life, Shoshani hung the picture of the bearded ideologue of the Labor Movement in his room, as if to keep him abreast of developments.

"I think that Gordon would have been proud of the 'Degania model' that we have built, and I'll tell you why," he said, his eyes on the picture on the wall. "A.D. Gordon saw the human being as the center of experience. After all, he is the father of the philosophy of labor. And what have we done now? We have strengthened the value of labor. We have compensated those who work and those who believe in the value of work, that's all we've done."

The revolution was born out of great pain that was liable to bring about the downfall of the kibbutz. The conveniences of kibbutz life caused many of the members to stop working so hard and to depend on others. An ugly atmosphere was created between those who worked more and those who worked less, which member Chen Vardi called "moral corruption." The principle of equality was so badly undermined that it almost evaporated, and it has been replaced by an emphasis on the individual and on compensation. From now on a person will work according to his ability and will be compensated accordingly. If he works, he'll receive something in return. If he works more, he'll receive more. If he doesn't work, he'll receive the minimum.

Even the Berlin Wall fell

The kibbutz movement was always haunted by the fear that utopia would eventually clash with human nature. The first members hoped to change human nature and to reshape it, and to turn kibbutz society into a model for mankind. That didn't happen. Human weakness was stronger, and walls of envy and suspicion rose between the members.

After leaving Kibbutz Hulda, author Amos Oz told Niva Lanir in the now- defunct newspaper Davar (September, 1991) about the place that had been his home for 30 years: "... When I come to what was my home, my heart aches. Things are not good in Hulda, and they are not good in other kibbutzim. It's hard for me to see people walking around with a sense of defeat, a general defeat of the kibbutz. With some people, you see from the way they walk that not only the kibbutz but their entire lives have become a defeat. Because they do not and will not have another life. And there are members who just for that reason have become stubborn, with a kind of 'in spite of everything' air, in the spirit of [author Yosef Haim] Brenner. Perhaps even with a Masada attitude: We'll fall on our swords and we won't surrender. And others, the practical and active ones, are engaged in changing the rules and regulations, as though this were Eastern Europe. As though orthodox communism had gone bankrupt and now the wise men are sitting and discussing privatization ...

"Those involved in trying to introduce changes in the rules believe that if the kibbutz members work harder, then everything will be all right ... And in order for them to work hard, the members have to be offered a carrot and a stick. Entries and receipts, incentives and functions. If and when they get more of those, as is done in every acquisitive society, joie de vivre will also be restored to the kibbutz. I think that they're mistaken ..."

The members of Degania A are sure that they are not mistaken.

"We were at a crossroads. We were afraid of a crisis, we were afraid of falling into a situation in which, God forbid, we would become a community that does not regerminate," says Shoshani. "The entire world around us changed, and we couldn't continue living in an atmosphere of a commune - that same commune that established Degania A in 1910. We had to adapt ourselves to the new world. Don't forget that even the walls of Berlin fell. We looked around us and saw one collapse after another. One kibbutz after another fell apart. We were not in that situation, but we understood that without change we would reach a crisis. We embarked on complicated surgery, but from a position of a strong and healthy community. And we emerged even stronger."

The result is a 49-page blue booklet that contains the new philosophy of Degania A. The booklet, "The Degania Model," is a road map that will determine how the members will live from now on in the 21st-century kibbutz community. The wise men of the kibbutz worked for five years on every last detail until they finally drafted the document, which almost completely won over all of the 320 kibbutz members.

Einstein's visit

Perhaps because it's Degania, one of the first Zionist adventures in the land of Eretz Israel, this kibbutz has been a subject of unprecedented media coverage. Even if neighboring Tiberias were to be offered up for sale, it is doubtful whether it would arouse as much of an international media uproar as did the privatization of Degania. The foreign press took an interest, and virtually every foreign television station sent a film crew. With the exception of Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, they all came to the kibbutz to see how it was faring.

Veteran members of the kibbutz recall other times when Degania aroused international interest. Member Miriam Singer mentioned in her diary the excitement on the kibbutz prior to the visit of Albert Einstein in 1929.

"Since I speak German, I was asked to welcome him with other members and to accompany him," she wrote. "I placed a small table on the porch of the first house, I put a white tablecloth and a glass of wildflowers on it, and awaited the important guest. And then two shiny black cars entered Degania. The door of the car opened and the figure of the scientist with the wonderful head appeared."

Einstein and his wife visited the kitchen and the dining room and admired the tanned children. "Suddenly he tossed out a question that embarrassed me," Singer wrote. 'What is the relationship between men and women?' he asked. I knew that people gossip a lot about our lives. Occasionally I would be asked by tourists if I knew my own children. Many couldn't imagine in those days that young men and women lived under one roof, and nevertheless conducted a moral lifestyle. When I heard this suspicious question from the professor, I was furious and I said: 'Mr. Professor, here every man has only one wife!'"

Einstein apparently fell silent and took Miriam's hand. "My dear girl," he smiled, "we, the mathematicians, understand the word 'relationship' in an entirely different manner. I meant to ask how many men and how many women live here."

During those days the Czech professor Jan Masaryk also dropped in for a visit, and writers S.Y. Agnon and Haim Nahman Bialik used to spend vacations on the kibbutz. And now, as then, the members were asked to give a warm welcome to the journalists and photographers from abroad. They all had one request: Don't portray our kibbutz as unfortunate and don't show elderly people walking sadly along the pathways. The members made sure to demonstrate optimism and the sense of a new life to the media.

"We don't want to be portrayed as unfortunates," Shoshani explained, "but as a strong community that is embarking on a new path with tremendous energies."

Spirit of the times

The dining room has now been privatized and the meals are prepared, for a fee, by the neighbors in Degania B. The laundry has also been privatized. The members have bought washers and dryers. They have bought cars, opened bank accounts, purchased stocks and bonds, and opened savings plans. And they are keeping track of their personal finances via the Internet.

Prof. Dar believes that this is an inevitable maturing process for the kibbutz member. There was a time when he received all the services without making any effort: They laundered for him, cooked for him, took care of his children, brought his mail, did repairs for him. "We developed an illogical autarchic system," he explained. "That's why we had to reduce the cooperative aspect in order to increase individual freedom. The main change is less equality and privatization of personal income. In that sense we have undermined the values underlying the traditional kibbutz."

Like many members, Dar also has reservations about the reforms, but over time he was convinced that mutual responsibility would be preserved and therefore he supported the plan. During the past year, when the scheme was implemented, it turned out that income from work increased and expenditures for welfare decreased. Suddenly the kibbutz discovered that people are willing to work more in order to earn more. Even people who had become accustomed to not working returned to the work force.

"In that sense Bibi won," said Dar, a member of the Labor Party, with a sad smile. "Because the moment the kibbutz linked work and compensation, it turned out that all the sides profited."

Most of the members have become reconciled to the new revolution. They have thus only become part of Israeli reality, in which reports on the vagaries of the stock market sometimes open news broadcasts and the financial sections in the newspapers are steadily expanding. The kibbutz, which aspired to invert the pyramid and reshape the nature of the Jew, has been forced to throw in the towel and to adapt itself to the spirit of the times.