The Kibbutzim used to be the vanguard of the Zionist revolution - repossessing our long lost land by working the soil. In the hierarchy of the kibbutz itself, the people who worked the fields - once known as "the Falachim" and later "the gadashnikim" - were considered the Elite. Every boy used to dream of the day he'll be old enough to straddle one of those mighty machines, and ride off into the sunset (and then back and then back and then back and then back ad infinitum. It was actually pretty boring work.)

Those days are long over. The vast fields of beautiful white cotton had been decimated to nothing - they eat up too much water; The golden wheat is a thing of the past - it's so much cheaper to import the stuff... And the kids - they would rather straddle an ergonomic chair at one of our start-ups.

The big machines still go out to the fields every morning - and hopefully will go on for many years."Gadash Nachshon" may no longer be an Empire - as the above T-shirt design claims - but it still is the backbone of this and most other kibbutzim.