Passover Army Update

It’s been a long while since I last wrote anything; I seem to remember always being a lot less tired, and having a lot more energy to write things down. It seems that these days I spend most of my free time passing out, counting the hours till I have to get up again and go back at it. Memories get turned into a grey blur, if it was not for my journal, I would start forgetting most of it. That being said, I think the last few months have generally been an amazing experience, and I am sure I will get all the stories down eventually.

I have been enjoying my Passover miracle, I was meant to get one day of vacation, and somehow it turned into nine whole days of being off. I don’t know how it happened, but as the first real vacation I have had in the army, I am really enjoying it, matza or no matza.

After leaving basic training twenty or so pounds lighter and slightly more clued in to the Israeli mentality. It turns out that a contributing factor to all the laid back hippy elements in Israeli society stem from cultural rebellion to having repressed those few years while serving in the army. Judging by the guys coming in for reserve duty a few years after their service, most leave the daily shave and frequent haircut far behind them.

I was temporarily assigned to a base near Gaza to wait the two months until my course opened. We were offered a number of courses, and not really knowing if there was an advantage to being a truck driver over something else, I picked chemical warfare. It sounded interesting, and in the worst case scenario, at least we would have our space suits.

After meeting several people on my temporary base and interviewing with a number of officers, I sort of fell into the role of army chaplain. I found it to be a great job which helped me learn a lot about the army, and interact with soldiers from all over the army.

I decided to stay on the base and take a course from the Rabbinate instead, so I will now be there till the end of my service, which should be early this summer.

More when my brain works again.