This Year in Jerusalem: Pesach

The past few weeks have gone by quicker than most in the army. As you all can tell by the reduced frequency in which posts are going up, things have become a little bit more difficult in the army and time is quite a bit tougher to come by. With that in mind, I hope to maintain a normal pace in keeping you all informed in what's going on, a pace faster than I've been able to recently.

When I returned to the army a few weeks ago, I was told to report to another base in the country. Being one of only three soldiers in my entire pluga not on my week-long vacation, I had no clue what I'd be going to do.

Upon arrival, I was told by event organizers that before the week of Passover, I would be there to assist a group in preparing packages for families from an extremely low socio-economic background. Despite going into the week thinking I'd be guarding for two hours a day and sleeping the rest (something entirely rare in the army), I was pleased to be afforded the opportunity to be doing something productive before the holiday.

The group of soldiers there worked with an amazing attitude from pre-dawn until post-dusk, smiles on our faces understanding that the work was going to a family who otherwise wouldn't be able to have a holiday meal. When all was said and done at the end of the week, we were personally responsible for 10,000 packages of food...10,000 families. It was amongst the most rewarding weeks of my life, certainly the most rewarding of my army service. It's important to realize that even with it's own work to do 24/7/365, the army is always willing to lend an extra hand to an organization that needs help, and that to me is simply inspirational.

I closed the weekend on base before leaving for the pesach seder, spending the holiday with Darren and the incredible family of our Garin Tzabar Mashakit that we've become incredibly close with.

The first seder in Israel was a powerful experience for me. I specifically remember sitting at the Passover table this time last year, enjoying in the company of loved ones, yet knowing that “next year in Jerusalem” would not just be a mantra. Being here, now a part of the army, now defending the freedom we swear to protect while chanting about the suffering of our people as slaves under the hand of the Egyptians, it's a difficult feeling to explain. Overwhelming, exciting, moving, or all of the above, it was an experience unlike any other.

Pesach on base was more or less like any other week, despite the food being entirely free of chametz. We had another week of guard duty around the base as the holiday continued before closing the weekend more and welcoming in another difficult week of advanced training (more on that later).

-Brett