DB's letter after his gibush

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the love and support you gave to my mother last week. She definitely needed it.
I have been asked to write a little about my week. There is so much to say, I’m not sure where to start. I guess I’ll start from the beginning. Last week I went to a tryout for sayret matkal, an elite unit in the Israeli army. It started Sunday morning and lasted through Thursday afternoon. It took place near the beach between Ashkelon and Ashdod.
Most of the week was very physical. All week we wore an army uniform, a vest and gun. They woke us up at around 4:30 every morning (we didn’t actually know what time it was because we weren’t allowed to use our watches), to line up in formation. We then went with our groups of around 20 boys out into the sand dunes. That’s when the hard stuff started.
We had around 6 different commanders per group. One of them would say, “You guys see that bush at the top of the dune? Go up and around it and whoever comes first we write down your name, GO!”
So, of course everyone ran as fast as they could up the sand dune and down to the line. Then he would tell us to do it again. And again. And again. About fifteen to twenty times. Then we had a 8-15 minute break. Afterward he told us to open a stretcher and put 4 sandbags on it. He told us that the first four boys in the line should take the stretcher for another round. We did this countless times. Sometimes they would tell us to go up and down and then drop and crawl for the next 20 meters; or sometimes we had to crawl up the hill.
One exercise that was physically and mentally draining that started at 4:30 AM, was when the commander lined us up and said, “Every one crawl to me.” We would have to crawl, arm over arm while still holding our guns and not lifting our bottoms. When we had almost reached him, he would start walking backwards! And so we would have to continue crawling until we reached him. That took us until a little after sunrise.
They then gave us about 20 minutes to eat. Eating consisted of cans of tuna, corn and pickles, and loof, which I can only compare to kosher spam. We took all that stuff and loaded into two pieces of bread, which was actually pretty tasty.
The commanders gave the religious kids time to daven shachrit (the morning service). I was one of only three religious kids in my group.
After that we had different assignments. One was to fill a sandbag and run up and down the dune as many times as possible with it on our shoulders. Another was to dig a hole, a meter by meter, with a little foldable shovel that we carried with us. Then the commander would ask us questions about it. The commanders wanted to see if we also had brains, so we did different things to show them that. We had to draw a map of the world in the sand, as well as give a speech about any topic for a minute and then the commanders questioned us about it. I spoke about baseball because I knew the Israeli army men knew absolutely nothing about it. One of the commanders asked me why anyone would actually enjoy the sport because he thought it was so boring.
During the day hours it was too hot or it was raining so we didn’t do any physical stuff. Instead they kept us occupied by the mental part. Then in the evening we went back out to the sand dunes and did the physical part all over again.

I think that I really stretched my limits this week. Things that used to seem hard to me, won’t seem as hard anymore. I was thinking, they woke us up in the middle of the night and had us going all day and I still made it, so why should it be so hard for me to get up at yeshiva and learn?
The results of the week are still a little unknown. I made it through the week, which was a huge accomplishment, and I was placed on a waiting list as the other 50 boys ahead of me go for their medical check-ups. If any of them fails this part, I am on the list that fills their place in the unit. I should know the results of this within the next week or so.
Although there were moments when I wasn’t sure if I could take another step, I knew that you were all praying and cheering me on. I appreciate your support more than you know.

Thank you again,
D