Week 5

What a weird feeling going from Shabbat right into army life. There’s a phrase on the base (and I’m sure army-wide) “בכל שבת יש מוצאי שבת” – for every Shabbat there’s an end of shabbat. Why, in the already depressing, disciplinary, humdrum existence of army life, they can’t allow us one day of excitement and rest without reminding us of what’s to come as soon as the day is over, I don’t know. But that’s the army.

I mostly read and slept and got into an interesting conversation with a classmate who’s a “Jew for Jesus” and lives on a kibbutz of people who all practice. My Hebrews improving every day but it was expectedly hard to have a theological conversation about his beliefs with my limited Hebrew. He believes in God and the old testament, but also the new testament and Jesus. When he prays, he prays to both.

(He also told me he prayed to Jesus that morning that he would have the opportunity to explain his faith to someone. Did I accidentally push a Jew further away from Judaism?)

We did some more shooting and Tekes practice in the beginning of the week and once again, I was taken out for Hebrew lessons. Since they’re with people of all Hebrew levels, and thankfully my level is already pretty high, these lessons aren’t the most helpful, but I appreciate them nonetheless. A break from the regular day to sit with a Mashakit Ivrit and just speak is always welcome.

On the previous Thursday, my Mefaked Machlaka asked me if I’d be comfortable speaking about my experience as a Chayal Boded in front of other chayalim bodedim. I said yes, of course. On Monday morning, a group from Ramat Gan that regularly visits to give gifts and donations to Tzanchanim came by. They passed out a new set of dri fit shirts, bottles, and Tzanchanim stickers. In the afternoon, all the chayalim bodedim were called to a special הרמת כוס (a toast). We were treated to an amazing lunch and speeches from different people including the מבא”ח about the experience of lone soldiers. I spoke about the hardships chayalim bodedim have. We chose to volunteer and weren’t raised with the knowledge we’d draft. We have to learn more than just the army training; we have to learn Hebrew and Israeli culture concurrently.

On Monday night we had our “Masa Tag”.  At the end of the masa we had a small Tekes where we received our Tzanchan tag to put on our shoulder lapel. It was a 7+1 km masa – 7 km regular and 1 KM with a stretcher. The Masaot still feel completely manageable. They’re long walks with weight – just keep putting one foot in front of the other and you’ll be fine. I was also a big walker before and come from a family of hikers – maybe I was inadvertently preparing for this. Its always fun finishing the Masaot – high fives all around, comparing how we all did and hyping each other up with the army’s favorite nickname “חיה”. It was especially מרגש finishing with the entire plugah and having a mini Tekes at the end.

Okay Tuesday. The big day. The first big symbolic event in our training – the תקס השבעה – swearing in ceremony. It’s hard to put into words how exciting it all was – maybe partially because I still can’t believe it happened. It’s all very official; at the kotel, with lots of organized standing and saluting etc, and all your family and friends there. My parents flew in, my cousins from modiin and from other parts of isfael, friends from Jerusalem and friends from Aleph.

When I was a kid, every night before bed my father would sing Shema, Hamalach Hagoel, and Hatikva with me. Standing at the kotel, in full army uniform, swearing the oath to protect the country and people I love was already emotional enough. But when we got to hatikva, I thought back to my childhood. How far I’ve come, how I never expected to be here and how proud that younger kid would have been of me. I teared up throughout the whole thing.

On Wednesday and Thursday I was given time off to be with my parents. Wednesday we went around Netanya for their apartment search and the beach and on Thursday I spent time organizing my apartment Jerusalem and went out with my father and uncle Guy at night.

Friday morning I went to visit liora at her housewarming in Kibbutz Saad and got back to base to a quick organization of my equipment and a walk to the shetach. We’re here for Shabbat and the week. Everything that goes up must come down. This week was nice and relaxing with family and all the time off and next week will be hell. That’s life on army time.