Tekes Hashba'ah

In Akko, there is a prison from the British Mandate that held members of the rebellion groups Haganah, Lehi, and Irgun. The prison is known for a famous break-out and a number of executions (eight Jewish ones). The majority of the prison is still intact, and its entirety is now a museum on the Mediterranean Sea shore. The room were the hangings took place contains all the original parts, but of course a few things have been added, including plaques explaining what it was, the names of those hung there, and the first few lines of Hatikva (The Hope), the Israeli national anthem, ending with ...

The Jews hung in that room may not have had the chance to finish singing the song of our people, but every single soldier last Tuesday not only had the freedom to sing Hatikva in its entirety, but also to swear our allegiance to the Israeli Defense Forces and the nation of Israel. We had a group oath, with all the details of what we were promising, a confirmation of the group oath, and then the individual swearing-ins. 

We arrived in Akko a couple hours before the ceremony. During our rehearsal, I saw my friend Ayelet! She and her sisters babysat me back when we lived in Cleveland, Ohio. I got to see her for a bit before we actually started, and she had her super cool camera and sharp eye with her so a lot of the photo credit goes to her.

This was supposed to be our time to shine our shoes, but the lines were so long I went for the spit-n-rub

Right before we got started, but were already in formation, I saw Josh, who my mom "adopted" when he was in college, and a couple of my friends from the ulpan. Tzvika Levy (huge proponent of Lone Soldiers from the west) brought gifts for Lone Soldiers that had been put together by people around the world. When we started the ceremony, it was blazing hot. We were told constantly to drink water, but got in trouble if we were moving at the wrong times (which were always our opportunities to drink). Army logic! We ended up not caring as much about staying static the whole time and more about staying hydrated. As you can see in the photos, we also had to wear our kumtot (wool berets) and keep our sleeves down the whole time, so it was HOT. Most of us were really excited to start, though, and it was fun because the group oaths were basically a contest to see who could yell the loudest. 

Can you spot me? I'm all the way on the edge

We started with the group oaths, which were led by the commander of my pleuga (the mem pay), and then the confirmations went around the giant chet (three-sided square, our regular formation) by machlaka and led by each of our sergeants. There were speeches by the commander of the base and someone else (we weren't really sure who she was, maybe an officer for one of the boys' groups. At that point, it was hard to stay focused. They talked too fast and we couldn't hear very well. We tried to stay quiet and just made sure the girls that didn't have canteens got enough water. In the middle, I saw my mom's friend Bunny from Nashville who is visiting her family for a few weeks! Finally, it was time for the individual oaths, where we ran up to the commander of the machlaka (mem mem), grabbed a rifle and holy book of choice, held them against each other, and shouted "Ani Nishba'at!" (I swear!) and then ran back to formation.

The very moment I swore on an M-16 and Tanach to protect Israel to the best of my ability

When it was my turn to go, I shouted so loud the mem mem (green beret, across from me) couldn't stop a huge smile from spreading across her face. I wanted everyone to know I meant it, and I think she could tell. If she knew how many soldiers she has in her machlaka who really truly want to be serving Israel, she would be proud.

The raised flag, after the ceremony, photo cred to my friend Jesse

We ended the ceremony with Hatikva. It was very moving and special. When we finished, we were released for some time with our family and friends. I was so shocked to see my kibbutz dad all of a sudden! I wanted to tease him for being so late, but he explained that he had been there the whole time and it was me who didn't see him from a few meters away. He has about six pictures of me almost seeing him, but never actually recognizing him in the crowd. Josh, Shaun, Arieh, and Ayelet came down from their seats on top of the wall, and when everyone was together it was the greatest feeling in the world to have everyone surprise me there. (I knew a couple of them were coming, but not everyone!) I got lots of sweets and a package from my mom that Josh gave me. Everyone got to know each other and it was fun to see people from all different aspects of my life. (Josh is my adopted brother but is not in any way connected to my adoptive dad, and so on.) When the time was up, it was very hard to say goodbye. In the end, all the girls were about five minutes late, which we paid for later that night, but didn't have to worry about while we were off base. We got a tour of the prison, and headed home.

This was when I *finally* found my kibbutz dad Sheffy

Because we did tironut and some Hebrew classes at the same time, we didn't finish all of tironut before the tekes. So, ironically, when we got back to base we almost immediately went into classes to finish learning about some basic stuff, and were completely exhausted when we went to bed.