Week three was an eventful week because we went to
Jerusalem and finished Basic Training.
Going to Jerusalem in uniform, with a gun and my unit was an experience I don’t think I will ever forget. We visited Yad Vashem, Har Herzl, and the Kotel.
Every time I go to Yad Vashem, I get something different out of my visit, but this time was especially impactful for obvious reasons. At Har Herzl, I visited the graves of Michael Levine and Max Steinberg - two lone soldiers who lost their lives in battle. Seeing the overwhelming number of rocks put on the graves as well as pictures and army tags made me realize again how much all Israelis are truly here as our family. The Kotel was of course meaningful, especially because so many tour groups came up to us and asked to take pictures while continuously thanking us for our service. I remember being those tour groups, completely enamored by the soldiers!
That night when we came back from Jerusalem, we had something called a Masa - a hike in the middle of the night when we wear all of our gear and work towards a specific goal. It was a tough journey, but at the top of the mountain, each of our commanders replaced our yellow tags (representing basic training) to green and white tags (representing our course). We then had our Hashabaah (swearing in ceremony) right then and there. When I was called up to receive my gun and Tanach from my officer, I truly didn’t believe that all of this was real. That I was really swearing into the IDF. I kept looking around at the Israeli flags, the lights of our base at the bottom of the mountain, and all of the girls I am with, as tears welled in my eyes.
I also have to present a 10 minute class next week and take a test covering everything we learned last week.
I got off early this weekend (on Thursday) because as a lone soldier, I get one day a month to organize all of my bank stuff, errands, etc. I am spending Shabbat with Lilly and David at my Kibbutz and look forward to seeing my Garin Tzabar family.
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