Lynn B. is in Israel this week, that lucky person, and she sent me an email that I simply have to share with you all:
Went to the Wall yesterday — a gorgeous sunny day (temperatures are running in the 60s and 70s here during the day but still cold at night) and they were having a swearing in ceremony for several hundred new soldiers who had just finished basic training. Quite impressive. They give each one of them a gun and a Tanach. Only in Israel.
Yes. Only in Israel. Am Yisrael Chai!
Every so often you run across something that emphasizes just how vulnerable Israel is.
I read once about a swearing in ceremony used before the 1967 War, I don’t remember which corps of Zahal used it. They trucked the recruits down to the beach near Tel Aviv, where Israel is narrowest, and stood them with their backs to the water. They were at the very edge of the sea, the waves lapping at their boot heels. Then the officers pointed to a line of low hills a few klicks away, easily visible. “That’s Jordan, enemy territory.” There, with their backs to the sea and in sight of enemy territory, they took their oaths of service.