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.