Week volunteering for the IDF

 

This week the entire Yeshiva took a week off to do Sar-El, a volunteering program for the IDF.
On Sunday morning, after meeting our madrich for the week, we set out from Yeshiva for a long ride towards an army base in the south called ‘Tze’eilim’. Once we arrived, we were shown our rooms, issued our uniforms and sent to work. The Tze’eilim base was used in the last few weeks by many of the reserve soldiers heading towards Gaza so there was allot of rearranging to do. Many of us worked in the warehouses arranging the uniforms and helmets, some even helped set up the equipment to reload the tanks with! After the days work we ate supper together with the soldiers followed by our night activity.

The next day, after waking up early in the morning for Shachris we joined the soldiers in the centre of the base for the daily flag raising. We were then sent to back to continue the previous days work. Later that day we had a surprise visit from Rabbi Gamson, Rabbi Greenberg and Rabbi Malkin.

Throughout the week, we worked hand in hand with the soldiers and got to see allot of the army’s advanced equipment and vehicles. On Tuesday night, we were privileged to be given a tour by one of the engineering officers in the artillery unit. He showed us some of the mobile units used the week earlier in Gaza and even gave us a look inside one of them.

On Thursday, our last day on the base, the soldiers thanked us for our hard work. This week taught us the importance of every solder in the Israeli army. Throughout our experience on the base we met many soldiers our age in all fields of combat and non-combat units. After a full week of working, eating and playing basketball with them each night, we were able to experience the life of an Israeli soldier.

 

 

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