Ani Nishbah: I Swear!

A tanach resting against my heart, my hand at a salute on my rifle, I stared proudly at a wind-blown Israeli flag against the backdrop of the Kotel. The words of the “Hatikvah” left my lips following those swearing my loyalty to defend the nation I now call home. After the physical and mental challenges of the previous week, my Tekes Hashba'ah was the perfect contrast.

As I returned to base at my typical late arrival time on a Sunday morning, the buzz of our coming Tekes Hashba'ah was everywhere. The cancellation of the original event only made everyone more excited for the actual date, directly leading the first two days of shooting ranges to move by at a snail's pace.

Even more trying was the bad news I had received from Darren in the beginning of the week: his commanders were not letting him out to come to the ceremony. Absolutely gutted, I took the maybe inappropriate action of approaching one of my officers and asking him to make a phone call for me. I found out the following day that each one of my commanders and officers took it upon themselves to call their counterparts in Nachal, those they knew from commander or officer school, in order to try pull some strings for Darren to attend. Whether or not it had any connection, I found out late the evening before the tekes that Darren would be given permission to come.

The way the situation unfolded gave me the sense that the commanders and officers charged with turning me into a warrior were out for my best interest in every possible way. Despite their hard-line attitudes and discipline methods on a daily basis, these men are really caring individuals, willing to go beyond their job titles' in order to see their soldiers happy. It was a special moment for me and really made me look at my superiors in a new light.

Finally, Tuesday came around and we boarded the busses to head out to Jerusalem. After some initial touring, following the path of the 1967 Paratroopers who captured the Kotel, we had some time to meet family and friends before the ceremony began. I was enormously pleased to see my Garin Rakaz and mashakit had come. Another added treat was seeing my brother there as originally planned, as well as two friends who had come as a surprise. When you see all of your army friends' families gathered to celebrate with them, it's an incredibly heartwarming feeling to have your brother and best friends come be there for you.

And then it began. Standing there in the chilly Jerusalem breeze, marching towards the wall chanting songs of pride for the unit before finally swearing in my loyalty to the Jewish nation...the personal importance of the ceremony to me was enormous. I passionately gave my “Ani Nishbah!” as loud as my voice would allow, no less effort being afforded to the Hatikvah.

The night was not one I will soon forget.

My unit shoulder tag. Still surreal to wear.

As quickly as it had come, the ceremony had also come to an end and after some goodbyes, I was on a bus back to base. As I mentioned once before, the days following the ceremony were supposed to be chemical and biological warfare education activities. As we woke up the morning after our ceremony, we were filled in on another unscheduled army development.

“You're now sworn soldiers, here to defend the Jewish nation.” my mefaked said to us, “Pack your bags, we're spending the night in the territories guarding.”

While I'm not sure I'm allowed to detail exactly where I guarded and for what reason, suffice it to say that a trek into less-than-friendly territory had many interesting moments in store for me. This was the first time I felt like I was really doing something real as a soldier, actually put into a situation in the civilian world and given a job to do.

I guarded for eight hours on no sleep that night, standing there in the less-than-pleasant weather (more rain and cold). Still, I couldn't help but appreciate the magnitude of the situation for me. Some moments, like the one where a car driven by a very religious Jewish man stopped next to me, his passengers handing us chocolates as a “thank-you” before driving off, made me proud to be a soldier. Others, like the one where my group of three was skipped over for our short break leading to four hours straight of standing in the cold, made me frustrated to be a soldier. With everything taken into account, this was an important, meaningful point for me in my army service.