Week 27

The calm before the storm. The last week on base before Shavua milchama: 10 days straight in the shetach which culminates with the 50 kilometer masa kumta and the completion (finally) of these 7 months of training.

This week felt like a filler week. A week of שפצורים mainly. Yes, it’s important to make sure all your equipment is ready for שבוע מלחמה, but to spend an entire week on doing and redoing equipment felt like overkill. If anything (and maybe this is the real reason) it just builds the anticipation and nerves before Shavua milchama.

As soon as we got back on Sunday morning, we had a pump up speech from the מג”ד – the entire machzor gathered together in the gymnasium, around 450 people. He spoke about expectations for the week and how he has faith in all of us. Yes it will be challenging but were all capable. We’ve come this far.

We spent the rest of the day doing שפצורים on our equipment and ended Sunday hearing from a father who lost a son to friendly fire in Gaza 2 years back.

Monday we were driven to צאלים, mini Gaza, to build a wooden structure, לשאביעת עץ, for drills during our Shavua milchama. Again, we have no idea what the week will look like, but here we were helping assemble hell week.


I still hadnt gotten my teeth checked by the army dentist and after 5 months of waiting, the Chopel told me to schedule my own appointment through meditik (the army’s medical appointment scheduling app) on another base. I had an appointment set for Tuesday at the Marpa Darom at ir habadim and left at 8:30 in the morning for it.  The appointment ended up only being 30 minutes, but with all the transport and waiting around, I ended up getting back to base at 6. A nice day off in an already relaxed week. It was pretty cool walking around another, more expansive army base – full of stores, dozens of buildings, and the greatest shekem I’ve seen. Really felt like a city. Everyone else spent the entire day doing shiftzurim and as soon as I got back, I completed some omissions in my equipments shiftzur and then took part in the misdar מ”מ where he went over all our equipment.

We started off Wednesday with what we thought would be a normal 5k run. The run ended in the middle of the forest near base where other guys who couldn’t run were waiting for us with cereals and a pakal cafe. We sat down in a circle, enjoyed the make shift breakfast, and the מ”מ opened up a conversation on how prepared we feel not just for shavua milchama but also, if need be, for real combat.

I was told I’d be Toran Sarsap for the day, so while everyone else continued with Shiftzurim, I picked weeds needlessly. That night we had the מסדר מ”פ – another check of all our ציוד. To make it more fun, we set up a whole performance as he comes out.

Thursday, if the trend isn’t already obvious, we spent on shiftzurim. We had another class on safety during the upcoming week, spent a few more hours on shiftzurim, and had another misdar with the Mefaked habach at the end of the day. The final one, to make sure all our ציוד was truly ready.

We started Friday with a שיחת צוות and had a Yom yeshiva – a day where the rabbis are brought in and give shiurim to the דתיים. In the afternoon we had a talk from the מפקד החתיבה on what gdud 202 is doing now, where they’ll be when we join them, and expectations for us as soldiers in the gdud.

There were countless conversations throughout the week on what to expect during Shavua milchama. Rumors, stories from friends, full schedules people got somehow. We’re doing everything we can to minimize the fear going in.

But,  there’s also tons of excitement. We’re at the end. We just have to finish this hell week and then we’re done with training. Finally.

Throughout the week I had nostalgia walking around base. Remembering my first krav maga, the kaderim of tironut, all the hours at the mitvachim. Seven months we’ve spent here and it’s all coming to an end. Just like that. It’s been the longest half year of my life, but it’s broken me and built me up. Reshaped my perspective on difficulty and challenging conditions.

After the kumta I want to write a longer post reflecting on all of training. But for now, I can’t wait for my reality to change. Not just to be done with training but to have a totally different army experience. What is the gdud like? What’s it like to feel human again? To have your phone with you and have a bit more personal freedom. It’s all exciting, and it’s just a couple weeks away.