This paper is a multi-level explanation of the “kibbutz crisis.” Due to widespread structural differentiation in Israel since 1948 the kibbutzim, as a group of concrete collectivities, have been “specialized” relative to the adaptive problem and are now primarily units of the economy. Pressures are placed on the kibbutzim to subordinate communal moral-integrative norms to rational criteria and production effectiveness. The diverse repercussions of this dilemma are described and analyzed in kibbutz Mayeem Kareem.