I drafted Into the IDF!! Well sorta....

“Bye Mom, going to the IDF!”

This WhatsApp message (Israelis don’t text so of course neither do I) was sent to my mom before I embarked to Sde Boker, Israel in the desert for a week of experiencing the army through Gadna. For those of you who don’t know, Gadna is a several day long IDF, Israel Defense Force, experience for highschool students. Both Israelis and non Israelis can experience Gadna, however its much more real for the Israelis since they have a draft hanging above their head that will arrive in a short few years.

            Often heard by the Mefakadim, commanders, in Gadna is “Eser Shneot Zuzu” which means, you have ten seconds to move. So it only figures I write about 10 things I experienced or leaned from my three days at Gadna

1.     Everyone looks better in an IDF uniform – Don’t try to fight me on this one. Putting on the green uniform that my people have fought relentlessly in for years to protect the state I love so much is an incredible feeling. The green button down shirt along with the pants gives you a sense of confidence and pride. You look down and don’t have the identity of yourself but the identity of a soldier, someone who gives their all to Israel, and that is one of the most incredible feelings the world. On a more superficial level, its just a fact, everyone in uniform looks better. Trust me.

2.     Being a soldier can mean a million different things – See that cook, yeah they are a soldier. See that doctor, them too. See that person doing logistics, they are just as much of a soldier as anyone else. Although I knew that there was more the IDF than just combat soldiers I truly didn’t realize how vast the jobs were that fall under the overarching term “Army”. Just because you don’t have a gun, doesn’t make you any less of a soldier than the person who sits in an office all day and does paperwork about border control, logistics, or any number of things. This changed my perspective of the mandatory draft a little bit since I always thought, “what do the people who are more lovers than fighter do in the army?” Now I truly realize and understand that they can do any number of things that don’t involve a weapon, combat, or being in the field.

3.     Having Hebrew screamed at you is a great way to learn – I, admittedly, am really not to great at Hebrew. Yes I had my Talmud Torah education for several years but I retained practically none of it. I am taking Hebrew class here but am nowhere near fluent, I can maybe have a conversation with a three year old and even then I may struggle, but I am making significant progress and am much better then I was three months ago. At Gadna, to give you a full ISRAELI army experience, they speak Hebrew and only Hebrew. This was terrifying for me. Although they would let people in my Tzevet, platoon, translate there wasn’t always time for it. There are around 10 people in each tzevet so one person is bound to be able to translate. I had to pick up on the army lingo in Hebrew, quickly. Things like push-up, drink your water, run, and much more had to be engrained in my head as soon as I could figure it out. The first day was rough, I had no idea what was happening, ever. I would have to do pushups often since I didn’t know what they were telling me to do because I didn’t understand the language. Some of the mefkadim didn’t speak English either, so they couldn’t explain it to me. By day two and three I began to pick up certain words and phrases and started to understand more and more Hebrew. My mefkadet even gave me a little notebook to write down Hebrew words I didn’t know and then my tzevet would go over them with me at our nightly meeting. Being in a full Hebrew environment was difficult, especially since pushup were always a consequence, but I learned more Hebrew in three days at Gadna than I had in a weeks worth of classroom Hebrew.

4.     Teamwork makes the dream work – Whether its making a Chet Gadol, the formation we have to stand in which is a three sided square, or running in two lines together, surviving Gadna is not possible without team work. Your tzevet becomes your family, your mefakedet becomes your role model and leader. Whether you are best friends with everyone in your tzevet or you have never talked, after Gadna you will have a special bond with them all. You simply cannot get things done as an individual you must rely on each other and trust each other to get the jobs done.

5.     People will surprise you – There are some people who you don’t expect much out of in an army setting. We did a physical challenge activity that is similar to what soldiers do to gain admittance into special units. During this, the mefakedim were yelling at us to give up, drop out and quit. Some people pushed themselves harder than ever before, completely unexpected. Preconceived notions about people went out the window and it was truly insane to see my friends pushing through and not giving up.

6.     Attitude is EVERYTHING – So ill be honest, running everywhere in ten second intervals, doing push-ups if your babook mayim, water bottle, isn’t close enough to your left foot, and having an immense amount of structure at every turn isn’t always a blast. It’s a big change that can be hard to adjust to. Your attitude towards the things you do can truly affect your Gadna experience. Every group that goes through Gadna has meal duty once. My tzevet had breakfast duty. This meant getting up early to go prepare breakfast, clean, and man the different stations. Some were dishwashing, some were replacing empty food bins, everyone was doing a different job that all help the same importance. After doing this it was then our job to clean the entire Chadar Ochel, eating room. This was no easy task. It involved wiping tables, moving chairs moping the floors, cleaning all the dishes and all the serving areas, everything had to be clean. This was seemingly kinda gross, and not very fun. Since I had brought a speaker, my mefakedet let me grab it from our tent and play music during the cleaning. We all knew we couldn’t get out of the cleaning, and complaining would do nothing. We began playing music and got super into the cleaning. We choose to be positive about it and it was one of the highlights of Gadna. The smiles on our faces were HUGE and we had so much unexpected fun.

7.     Mefakdim are some of the greatest people you will ever meet – Your mefakedet can make or break your Gadna experience. I was #blessed to have one of the most amazing mefakedets ever. Her name was Lior, she was 21 and she is incredible. She always told us we are the best tzevet here and we need to prove it. Our tzevet, tzevet 15, craved her approval and we did everything we could to please her, exceed her expectations and make her happy. Whether that was screaming at the top of our lungs, making a perfect chet gadol, or being 5 minutes early, we did everything we could. We even made her laugh once and that was a true highlight since she had to cover her face since she isn’t allowed to laugh.  On the last day after the closing tekes, ceremony, all the mefakdim come out to meet with their tzevets one last time. This time is informal, no more formal greetings, no more running, just them as a person and not a soldier. They put their hair down and smiled and that made a world of difference in their appearances since we had known them to be straight faced, tough people.  We talked to them, asked them questions and thanked them. Some people cried while saying goodbye to Lior others proposed to her in hopes of finding love. We all loved out mefakedets and truly miss them even weeks after. They became a role model in our lives and taught us things that are difficult to learn in any other setting. I never knew how much of an impact someone can have on my life after only 3 days.

8.     Guns are not what they seem -  In Israel, its very typical to see soldiers with guns everywhere, and I mean everywhere. On the streets, in the Shuk, at the dinner table at restaurants, they are everywhere. When you go to Gadna, you are given the opportunity to shoot a gun. Not just any gun, the gun of the IDF, the M-16. This is the gun you see all the soldiers carry everywhere around Israel. Most of our lessons at Gadna were spent doing gun training. Learning about how to shoot, parts of the gun, the process of shooting, every little detail possible we were taught. There were ten rules that had to be read before every gun lesson. Instead of just reading them, one person in our tzevet would get in front of our group and shout them and we all had to repeat it back to them. Oh, and we were running in place for the shouting of all ten rules. This was underratedly fun and a surprisingly great way to learn things. Since I had shot guns at summer camps before I was not scared to shoot, I was actually quite excited. I remembered a surprising amount about parts of guns and gun safety and that came in handy. After shooting the M-16 on the range out in the middle of the desert, I had a realization. Soldiers have this weapon on their backs for years. The weapon becomes a part of them, and a part of their identity. This is the weapon that has saved Israel, fought for Israel, and continues to protect Israel. Although seeing guns on soldiers backs here doesn’t phase me whatsoever anymore, I have an entirely new respect for the person whos back the gun lays upon.

9.     Perspective is key – Metal cots, thin mattresses, little sleep, bad food. Gadna is not full of luxury. However we came to realize that in the army you don’t get a choice of this luxury. You are given what you get and don’t make a fit. You have to adapt to the army, not visa versa. We had 72 hours to deal with this. By the end of the three days we all began to love the little things we had initially hated and struggled with. Although the luxury sounded nice and a real mattress sounded like a myth, we all would have done anything to spend another night all together in our large tent on the base in the desert of Sde Boker.  The lack of things we were used to tuned into things that made the Army and Gadna special and some of the things we loved the most.

10.  You will walk out a changed person – Although many people on TRY ’17 decided the IDF was not for them after Gadna, we all walked out changed people. We stood in Ackshev, hands in diamond shape behind out back and feet flared outward with heels touching which is typical army stance, after we left the base and were no longer required to. We began sentences with “Hakshv hamefakedet” ,which means listen up commander and is what you had to say before you spoke to your mefakedet every time, on accident. We all felt weird being able to stand freely, hear English spoken to us and not being in uniform. We changed as people and learned the value of team work, pushing yourself, respecting ranks, and more during those three days. We left as changed people with a greater appreciation of Israel and how hard the IDF has fought for it over the last 70 years.

Overall, Gadna was by far one of my favorite weeks on TRY. I learned a lot, had a blast, and got to “be” in the army. I loved every part of it and would do it again in a heart beat. I’m not sure the IDF holds a place in my future, but I now have a greater urge to help Israel in any way I can. 

Worth the Wait

Arms linked together, our hands squeezing each other’s as tight as we could, and tears welled up in our eyes as we stared at the Kotel for the first time in person since our arrival in Israel two weeks ago. My friend, who I had only known for two memorable weeks had mentioned to me before the security to enter to Kotel, that this was her fist time to the incredible place that our faith centers around. After she made that statement I didn’t let go of her hand, I knew how special this moment was. Reminiscing on my first experience at the Kotel just 7 months earlier with my best friends at my sides and remembering the feelings that rushed through my body. The fear of it not living up to expectations, the excitement to finally be at the most important place in Judaism, the love for Judaism and Israel, everything one could feel I had felt. I began feeling it all over again and became overwhelmed with emotion.

    Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked around at my mispecha, family, standing around me about to go have our first experience as TRY ’17 at the Kotel. We slowly began walking towards the wall, and my excitement grew. We finally reached the wall and I patiently waited for a spot to open up on the wall. The first space open I eagerly motioned to my first timer friend to go have her first moments at the wall. By the time a space opened up for me, tears were streaming down
my face. Then for the second time in my life, I was touching the pinnacle of my faith and my closest connection to G-d. I push both hands upon the wall and rest my forehead to the wall and I can feel the indents, the cold stone, and the spirit of Judaism rushing through me. My mind, body, and soul felt connected and at peace with everything. I prayed, I thanked, I thought. Being at the Kotel is an indescribable experience. My main thought after stepping away from the wall was that my beliefs, faith, time commitment to Judaism, were all incredibly validated.
As we all began leaving our respective sections of the wall and returning to plaza we gathered in a circle and discussed our experiences. Similar and contrasting experiences were shared but all were incredibly meaningful. Betsalel, our Israel Core Course teacher, reminded us of the family we are creating here, the importance of our unity as a group and the power we have together as TRY ‘17

Welcome to Israel, heres the desert.

No service. Two words most teenagers dread to hear. Those two words were told to me and the 43 other TRY chanicim (students) before we embarked on our first tiyul, trip, to the Negev Desert in southern Israel.  We had no idea what to expect of this trip, but many of us were excited to escape the seemingly artic conditions of Jerusalem. All we were told was that we would be riding camels and sleeping in mud huts. Typical school field trip stuff, right? We hopped on the bus with mutual anticipation and excitement for our upcoming adventures. After arriving at our first education stop for the day, an overlook of Be’er Sheva, a city marking the northern border of the Negev, we began to make Israel our classroom. We learned about how our ancestors utilized the land of Israel, in their time Canaan, to their every need. After this unexpected stop, we began heading even further south to a place called Be’erotayim, a desert city near the border of Egypt and our home for the night.

At Be’erotayim we were greeted with a line of camels and our two desert guides. Introductions and rules were given and before I knew it I was on a camels back gallivanting along through the land of my ancestors. After a lengthy camel ride, we got to our home away from home for the night. It looked exactly as you would expect a desert experience destination place to look like. Middle Eastern inspired print hammocks and tapestries were hung all around for relaxing and visual enjoyment.  Hunger quickly caught up to us and we headed to the central room for dinner. Low tables with huge silver plates covering them, surrounded by sitting pillows was the scene that greeted us as we entered the room. After quickly settling in at our tables, bowls and plates of Middle Eastern food was brought out to us and laid on the large silver plate. Hummus, oversized and homemade pitas, some type of delicious meat, Israeli salad and more were served in excecess to us. We schmoozed, and rejoiced in our days experiences over the delicious meal and ate till we were stuffed to the brim. We were given some freetime to relax and enjoy our surroundings while the sun set on the rocky desert horizon. A campfire was madesurrounded by more sitting pillows for us to relax and enjoy near. Tea and coffee were prepared for us, the sweet tea was in high demand by everyone present at the fire.

After relaxing with our friends, we all gathered as a kehila (community) around the campfire for some bonding and singing. Our madrich (staff), Milk, tore out his ukulele and began strumming well recognizable songs for us all to sing along to. Song such as Lean on Me, Wake Me Up, Riptide, and more were brought to life by TRY ’17 and the other Ramah staff joining us. We paused for a moment during some of the songs and were told to look up. It was a sight unlike any other. The entire milky way, and many constillations were displayed for us in a way one could only dream of. The sight was breathtaking and magical. The silence of the desert enveloped us as we looked at a sight that was much bigger than us, but a sight we could only find in the desert. After letting the moment sink in, we sang some more and began to slowly head off to bed.

In the morning we were greated with another incredible breakfast, and more tea. We daavened Scha’arit, the morning service, around the campfire and quickly headed out for another day of camel riding and learning. Roughly 20 minutes into our journey we stopped in a fairly flat and not so rocky area. All of us gathered in a big circle and were given a short spheal by our Israel Core Course teacher, Betsalel. He spoke about how our ancestors connected to G-d and the manner in which they prayed. He taught us that in the biblical times of Abraham, if you wanted to pray you spoke aloud to G-d. As simple as that, you talked and had a conversation. After explain this to us he requested we all leave the circle in silence and find our own spot far enough away from others that if you talk softly they could not hear you. We were told to leave all time telling devices in the circle. He asked we go and have a conversation with G-d, talk about anything we wanted, and take a moment for ourselves without any concept of time. We dispersed from the circle and headed into our own personal conversation with G-d. I looked around and saw my classmates spread out across the desert and quickly began my own conversation with G-d. I talked about my future, my frustrations, fears, aspirations and more. I had felt connected and I had felt like I was heard. It was a moment I will never forget and aspire to have more like.
After we heard Betsalel belt Ozi V’Zimrat Ya, a common jewish tune, we began to head back and reform the circle we initially had. Once reunited we discussed our experience while praying. Hearing similar and contrsting experiences of others formed another stich in our close knit kehila. We proceeded to complete some additional learning and began heading to our lunch spot. Once there we made a homemade, desert style lunch complete with homemade tehina, Israeli salad, eggplant salad and desert style dirt cooked Pita.  The meal was incredible ad rewarding since we had a hand in making it.  After the rugged meal, we headed back on the camels and proceeded back to our mud huts to gather our things, head to the bus and leave the desert. This tiyul was an incredible way to begin our journey here in Israel. We saw the incredible power that the nature of Israel has to capture our hearts and leave us in astonishment. If this was tiyul one, it can only go up from here. I cant wait to continue to be in awe of this country and see all it has to offer.

Fresh Start

3,2,1, Wheels up.
I looked around me on the EL Al plane departing from JFK containing me and 18 other kids also leaving from JFK, about to embark on the adventure of a life time. I was terrified, scared, nervous, excited but most of all, beyond thrilled to be going on a plane back to my home. Israel was awaiting my arrival and I could feel it in every ounce of my body, heart, mind, and soul that the next time I was on the ground I'll be in the best place on earth, and my home for the next 4 months. I knew TRY would be a much needed fresh start, reset, unique, new, and outside of the box experience but that didn't help my initial minds much. Now, lemme tell ya, as excited as I was to be going, I was scared beyond belief. Meeting 43 new people who I'm all the sudden supposed to become best friends with and make life long memories and live with for the next four months is an incredibly daunting task, yet one I was just thrown into. Meeting everyone at the Ben Gurion airport after a long, overwhelming and intense day of travel made me wanna run for the hills, but I'm here to tell about it so I guess I made it through okay.
The first few days felt like weeks, each with long hours, intense schedules of orientation, meeting people and remembering names broken up by meals and the few hours of sleep we got. We all bonded over our mutual exhaustion and hunger. I made new friends and having people by my side made this entire process much easier. We began our Israel Core Course (ICC) class on day 2 and quickly began anticipating our first tiyul, trip, to Be'erotayim a place on the negev, desert, we were going to be spending some of our first moments together.
I continuously think back to my sobbing spell in the STL airport after EMTZA USY Winter Shab had ended, I had said good bye to my best friends and began embarking on this journey. I felt as though going on TRY was going to be a huge mistake, boy was I wrong. Although I am only one week in to this four month journey, I can confidently say TRY is one of the best decision I have ever made for myself. I am in constant awe at the people I'm with, the place I am living in, and the country and culture the surrounds me. I'm TRYing it and loving it and can't wait to see what the rest of the whirlwind trip is gonna bring me.