Decision and Acceptance - Israeli Style

I guess if we were living in the States and DB had made the decision to apply to Harvard, had an interview and was accepted, I'd let you all know.

So I am letting you all know, instead, that although DB did not decide to apply to Harvard (for various reasons), he did make the difficult decision of where he wanted to spend his next year and a half before going into the army.

There are several options in Israel for young men graduating from high school. This is all very new to me and some of it I may even have wrong. But for what I understand, every Israeli boy (and girl), when he turns 18, is obligated to serve in the Israeli army. Their choices are:

1) go directly into the army and serve three years.
2) get a postponement and study in yeshiva for 1 to 3 years. Hesder Yeshiva allows the boys to learn more and do less army serveice, Mechina programs allows the boys to learn up to one and a half years and then do 3 years of army service.
3) do sherut leumi (which is what most girls do), which is national volunteer service.

Those are the 3 choices as I understand them. Every Hesder yeshiva is different, as is every Mechina. Hesder yeshivas are know to have much more serious learning than the Mechina programs. And as I understand it, The Hesder programs are more textual based, while the Mechina programs are more spiritually/practically based.

After trying out different programs, DB decided that he didn't want to be in a place that was so serious in the learning department. DB has always been a more of a touchy-feely type of kid. And so I am not surprised he has chosen this route. Not, at all, to say he is not smart!

He is like his mother (and probably his father deep down) and is a more experiential learner.

DB chose the Mechina program he wanted and did everything he could to get in. Yesterday he had a meeting with the Rosh Hayeshiva (the head of the school) in a hotel lobby in Jerusalem. The school itself is called Eli and is located in a yishuv called Eli in the Northern West Bank. DB was very impressed with the Rabbis, boys, and the learning, and made a good enough impression on the Rabbi yesterday to get himself accepted.

So there you have it. My little boy will be going off to Eli in August, to study for a year and a half and then enter into the Israeli army. This is what he wants. He chose it and he made it happen.

This is big!!

And now I begin my DENIAL stage!!