Gadna Week... Ken HaMefaked(et)!

Everything leading up to Gadna helped us understand what it meant to be in the IDF. We learned about what it meant to have a Jewish state that we could defend without depending on anyone else. We learned about the heroes of Zionism

  and of the Jewish people.

The Shabbat before Gadna I went with my friend Noah to Herzeliya. We stayed with Chris an American diplomat, and his wife Rene. It was one of the best Shabbats I have had in Israel by far! We went to temple Friday and Saturday and without Noah and I, there would not have been a Minyan. There was almost no Minyan on Saturday, so instead of reading torah, we studied torah. One woman had a yortzite for her husband so she was really sad that there was no Minyan so we ran out and grabbed 3 people off of the street and asked them to come for kaddish. I have never had the problem of getting a Minyan because I am used to a huge community with a lot of people, but it felt great knowing that I made it possible for the woman to say kaddish. When we got back to Rene’s house she told us stories about her life which was really cool because she has lived all over the world. She is a biker and is really nice which surprised me.

            

 When we got to the Bus at the Hava we drove to the middle of nowhere to an IDF base called Sde Boker which is across the kibbutz from where Ben Gurion lived. When we got there we were told the basic rules and we were divided into four different groups called Tzevets. My tzevet was made up of 11 with two boys and nine girls. The mefakedets (Leaders of the groups) were really intimidating and had no souls.

After the first hours, we had our uniforms and mine was ripped and the pants had no buttons so I asked If I could exchange them but she said no and made me do push ups. We then went to an opening ceremony and at this point we had been standing for three hours. The mefakedets chose two people from each of the tzevets and chose two group leaders who were responsible for the group. From my Tzevet, Ironically Shira and I were chosen to be the group leaders. We had dinner and it was amazing compared to the food that we get fed at the Hava. After dinner they gave us an hour to get ready before we go to sleep and in that hour we all took showers and that was when we had our first encounters with the Israeli Juvenile delinquents who were there. They really liked calling us Big Macs and Whipping us with towels but while they were talking to us in English, I would answer them in Spanish.

I guess this is an IDF "red neck..."

When the hour was over, we got back in our Chet and the Mefakedet told us that we had to wake up at 5:30 the next morning. When we went to our tents, there was a mefakedet watching us sleep so we would not talk. All of the boys could not stop laughing and she was really annoyed. I asked to say the Shema and she yelled at me telling me to be quiet.

            The next day we learned a lot about techniques soldiers use to blend in and learned about how soldiers do things. We went to a big park and we ran, crawled, laid in bushes and camouflaged our faces with dirt. I carried a 30 pound container of water on my back all day and I was really proud of myself for carrying it all day.

When we finished at the park we walked back to the base for an hour. At night it was our turn to do kitchen duty and it was one of the highlights for me. We covered the entire dining room in soap water and we had to mop, but instead of mopping, we played hockey with squeegees and we used a spoon as the puck.

            

 The next day it was the same routine. Wake up at 5:30, roll up the tents, get in uniform and be waiting for the mefakedet in a chet at 6. Whoever was late whoever did not have a full water bottle and whoever was not standing in achshev was punished. I decided I was bored of following orders and that I was going to try my best to do push ups. I stopped counting after 400 push ups throughout the whole week. That day we had 5 classes on how to fire a weapon and learned all of the safety rules. 

Firing The M16

            The next day was the day that everyone was waiting for, the day we got to shoot the gun. When we got to the shooting range it was outdoors and it was very hot outside. We went 9 at a time and we shot laying down. We were ordered to sit down, then put our earmuffs on, lay down and pick up the gun, puck the magazine in the gun, cock the gun, turn the safety off, and fire. We had 10 shots and it was really cool to me because I have never shot a gun before. I was nervous to shoot it because I thought the recoil would hurt me but it did not. We did not get to keep the target we got to shoot at but I wish we did because I wanted to see if I was good or not. When we got back we had Sports Day and played physically challenging games.

           

  The last day, we turned in our dirty smelly uniforms and got into a circle with our mefakedet. She then told us to sit down and we said “Ken mefakedet!” she then said “No! Ken Amit!” We were all

Tzevet 2

really confused because she told us that under no circumstances we should call her by her first name! She told us about herself and said that she was from kibbutz Sde Boker! The kibbutz right behind were we went rappelling at! She also told us the story about her sister who was an officer in the IDF when she passed away and gave us her favorite quote a quote I will never forget. “The man who has been blessed is the one that can give without asking back and to get without ever forgetting”. It was amazing to know that she was not a mean person, but she was very nice. By the end of Gadna we were all exhausted from waking up early, standing, and running around all day. When we got back to school on Friday I had to hold back the urge to say “Ken Mefakedet” To my teachers! It was an amazing week that I learned a lot in and that I will never forget!


The TRY Gadna Week Video...