Week 3

Time in the army is a paradox – youre constantly busy and yet you’ve done nothing at all. Looking back, I know we did a lot, but there are multiple days where, from one meal to the next, well feel as though we’re incredibly rushed and constantly occupied with something, only to sit, relax at the meal, and realize we’ve done absolutely nothing at all. When everything is timed and you run from place to place, everything becomes important. Naturally, the first week of real training was packed with firsts.

Getting back to base felt like a homecoming. Throughout the week, you become so comfortable with the system and the way things are run , that getting out and having total freedom becomes abnormal. Settling back into the army mode of life, the mode of life which now occupies the majority of you week, now feels more natural
In the morning, we got the gdudim we would be with throughout our service. The ceremony was exciting; names being called out of who ,after the gibbush, got into a special unit. These kids had been dreaming of elite units for years and their addmitance was met with shouts and claps of excitement from everyone else in the room.
Within regular tzanchanim, the different gdudim are basically the same. I got 202. We were immediately introduced to our new commanders. They brought us to our rooms and showed us new equipment that had been laid out on our beds. We movded all our stuff to new rooms and had orientation all over. 202 has lots of Olim Chadashim and English speakers and even another 25 year old Chayal Boded.

Monday
We got even more equipment. But this time, the big ticket item – the one we’d all been waiting for- our guns. Without a magazine in it and before shooting it, it just felt like we were carrying around a prop. We didn’t feel the weight, quote on quote, of what we now possessed.

We immediately were brought to lectures where we learned a lot about the dangers of guns and gun safety. The Mefaked Machlaka is extremely strict on gun safety, as I’m sure all of them are. It’s easy to respect the mefakdim in general. Even though they’re younger, they’ve been through the army and are incredibly mature (or at least give off that persona). However, even though it’s part of the army’s game, they’ll get mad and punish us for illogical things. It’s easy to get annoyed with them then. For example, they wanted us to tie strings to our gun (some of us knew how to and some didn’t). They gave us 2 minutes. Since you need to be in a perfect ח at the end of any time limit in the army, it’s really only a minute and a half. So, for almost half an hour, they would give us 2 minutes (really a minute and a half) to tie this string, get annoyed when we hadn’t finished, then give us another 2 minutes to continue. But it’s a knot, you don’t just stop in the middle. We essentially started over every single time. And the mefakdim shouted at us saying, “we’ve given you 20 minutes to do this. How have you not done it yet?”. No you haven’t given us 20 minutes. You gave us 10, 2 minute chunks. It’s all part of the game, but I think it works to their detriment when they get mad irrationally. If we’re genuinely doing something wrong, I understand it, but this anger was laughably self-imposed.

Monday night we had our first masa! The air in the pluga was electric; Everyone was incredibly excited
Our mefaked spoke to us before we started about the brother of a friend who had died while protecting his friends at Nova- our masa was dedicated to him.
We started, and continued, at a fast pace. As an already big walker and hiker, the masa wasn’t too hard. It just felt great to be hiking in israel. Yes, the weight and pace were a bit difficult but overall very manageable. Someone in my kitah sprained their ankle early on. We shouted out that we needed to use the stretcher and the mefaked shouted back, “No, you’ll finish it like men”. So a bunch of us ran back and helped him throughout. He finished it, and I’m sure feels incredibly proud and accomplished that he did. It also helped us build our comraderie. When we got back to the pluga, there were high fives, smiles, and comparisons of how the masa was for everyone. We had a mini Tekes and i got emotional when the flag was raised and hatikva played. I’ll be a mess at the tekes hashbaa and masa kumta 🙂

Tuesday
The army wisely decided that olim chadashim need work on their Hebrew and more time in the educational sections of training. So for almost the entire day, all the olim chadashim had classes in the pullout Hebrew class. Everything was Still in Hebrew but it was slower, with a mashakit Ivrit, and very chill. (We had snacks in the room, were all joking around, and didn’t feel any time pressure). We learned the parts of a gun, how to disassemble it, the parts of a grenade, and the physics of shooting.
In the afternoon, the entire machlaka got a 2 hour nap since wed be shooting for the first time that night until 4 am.   Most people got to shoot, but since I’m dati, I had to leave at 1:30 so that I could get my 7 hours of sleep before minyan. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be dati – after all the shooting anticipation and excitement, I’d have to wait another day

Wednesday
Busiest day we’ve had. We Woke up late because of the shooting the night before. We started with Davening and while everyone else slept, the datiim did cleaning. After lunch, we went to some orientation to sign up for an online academy where we’ll be taking tests throughout training to make sure we’re actually learning stuff. It was sort of fake because we all just help each other out/the mefakdim help.
In the afternoon, We had our first imun kosher just to see the gym and get familiar. Then changed back into bet for dinner. Then back into madas for the bachmas.  We went through the bachmas to see each obstacle and do it slowly. On one of the obstacles, I fell and Cut my hand open. “Battle scars”
A lot of changing clothing back and forth. (For sure a skill to learn). We went Back into bet – they made us bring our shooting gear bag downstairs and made it seem like we we were shooting. Then gave us 4 minutes to change to chetzi bet for krav maga. Krav maga was just pushups, burpees, sprinting back and forth. Instructor pretended he was punishing us because we weren’t doing things in time but it was obvious this is the first krav maga session for everyone. Then we came back and changed into full bet for shooting. I finally got to shoot! I’d shot a gun previously, so I understood the power of the weapon, but in the army you only understand that you’re holding a weapon after you shoot it for the first time. After that, we did some “dry shooting” (no bullets) to get used to our scope.  I Went to sleep early again because I’m dati and then woke up early for Yom siddurim.

Thursday
The chayalim bodedim were given a Yom siddurim to handle anything they need (bank issues, apartment issues, appointments, etc). We’re given them once a month since we don’t have family here who can handle those things for us.
For the longest time I’d planned on moving to Bayit shel Benji, a huge lone soldier complex in Raanana. I knew it was the best and had every intention to live there but they only want people whose service is 2 years or more. I wasn’t willing to sign on more time from the start just to get into that lone soldier house, so Ive been organizing alternative options during my hour of free time. I reached out to my army of advisors and scheduled an interview with the Lone soldier center apartment on king George and Yafo in Jerusalem the previous Friday and heard back at the beginning of the week that I got it! So part of my weekend would be spent moving my stuff in. Had a very very chill day off on Thursday – basically just lounging around my apartment after the long week. It felt unproductive, and I hate that, but I had to remind myself that after a week in the army, its okay to just relax.

Friday
Moved all my stuff from the herzliya apartment to the Jerusalem one with the help of Shlomo and Allegra.

Spent shabbat by friends. It’s crazy how normal life can still be. For whatever reason, my conception of the army was that once you’re in, you’re in. A year and a half straight of nothing but army, essentially saying goodbye to your life on the outside. Even though friends had told me that wasn’t the case, my mind resorted back to that preconceived notion. After my 2nd shabbat out, whatever mental block I had is finally lifted. You’re in the army during the week, but life still goes on on the outside. Not only does it still go on, but you can have a robust social life. In a funny way, my social life is mainly the same – it exists primarily on shabbatot. In a community of adults with jobs, most of your social life revolves around the weekend. I was already used to it.

Sunday
Finished unpacking my apartment.

I got word on Friday that my special request to have a day off for a friend’s wedding Sunday night was approved.

The wedding was amazing and I’m thankful I was given leave to go. But every so often, I’d feel a flash of annoyance that I’d have to go back to base the next day. Is this what life on the outside is like? Never fully enjoyed or satisfactory because there’s always the thought of going back to base looming overhead?

I took public transport back to base – it still feels so cool being in madim out and about. Time to see what I missed on my extended weekend. Another week in the army awaits.