My IDF Alma Mater

My time at Michve Alon has been nothing but a roller coaster, starting at the bottom and ending on top.

During the first few weeks I was really not having it. The weather was extremely cold, to the point where I was wearing a neck warmer and a hat over one another that the only thing someone can see were my eyes. This was supposed to be a Hebrew course, not a day of skiing at Jay Peak. However that wasn’t it. I came down with COVID in just the second week, getting the luxury of a week off at the most inopportune time, when I actually wanted to be in the army. Additionally, this 11th plague meant I had to miss Yom Sayerot (tryout), a day I was very much looking forward to. Furthermore, I wasn’t really in love with the people I was around, wanting to come back to Erez every opportunity there was.

However, like most things, with time everything improves. As February came around we got into a routine. Two weeks later I was at Gibbush Tzanhanim, trying out for the unit that I’d soon be accepted to. Following that, the last month went by in a heartbeat, as I got closer and closer to my friends on base, and as the distance between ourselves and our commanders started to dwindle.

About two weeks ago, the end was dangling in front of us. We spent the day at Har Herzl (cemetery) and Yad Vashem (Holocaust museum), and after that there was the first sense of “ending” that we felt. We were talking amongst ourselves that in under two weeks we’d be at the Kotel in Jerusalem, swearing into the IDF. The once three month course turned into a couple of weeks, and a journey soon to be ended.

The last two weeks were fun, filled with laughs, little Hebrew studying, and a camp-like atmosphere around where we even did two scavenger hunts around base (something we do every second night at my camp). The distance between ourselves and our commanders were shrinking, and we cherished every moment together having fun and doing shtuyot (nonsense).

On Wednesday the 23rd, the day of our ceremony, we woke up at 3 AM to do a hike in Jerusalem. Our entire pluga was driven to Ein Kerem where we walked together towards Har Herzl. It was supposed to resemble the final masa kumta (beret march) that combat soldiers do at the end of maslul (training), but in fact it was just a nice time spent with everyone, stopping along the way to do several activities.

We arrived in Jerusalem, had some time to eat, change into uniform, practice for the ceremony, and then all of a sudden our guests were arriving and the ceremony was beginning.

There was something special about being at the Kotel for the ceremony, and having the chance to swear into IDF at such a special and centralizing place for the Jewish people. As it was my turn to swear in, I noticed two things on my right. In the periphery I saw the Kotel, the wall itself, and I knew just how special it was to have this opportunity here, and not anywhere else. Right in front of me I saw the video guy, pointing his camera right towards me for the picture to be projected onto the big screen for everyone in attendance to see. If I counted correctly, there were about 15 tables of people swearing in at the same time, and only one camera projecting one image. Seizing the opportunity, I decided to exaggerate my swearing in. I thought “if I was going to be on the big screen, might as well make it a good one.” My Samelet called me up, I saluted to the mefakedet machlakah (platoon commander), and then holding a rifle with a bible over it, I shouted the words “I swear.”

I walked back to the line giving a bunch of people hugs and Mazel Tovs, and then making my way to my family and grandparents who came early enough to sit in the front row, and see it all for themselves. The experience was meaningful, wholesome, and a moment of closure ending this first chapter of the army.

After three months next to Maghar, Israel, I have graduated Michve Alon and can call the base my Alma Matar (a term I had to teach one of my commanders). Now, in under two weeks I will start my next journey at Bach Tzanhanim, where training will begin, and the vibe might feel a bit different than summer camp.