Gibush Tzanchanim

About a week ago I participated in what is called Gibush Tzanchanim. A gibush is like a tryout - this particular one for Paratroopers. All the actual elite units have gibushim. For some reason, Tzanchanim does as well, even though it is no more elite than the regular infantry units. However, the conditions of Tzanchanim are slightly better than those of the soldiers in other units. Plus Tzanchanim get to jump (more like get pushed) out of a plane, five times. For these reasons, about 2 500 people do the gibush every time there is an enlistment.
My gibush was a beinish gibush, meaning most of the guys there were hesder yeshiva students. There were also some non-religious Israelis there. In total, there were probably about 200 there. Normally it is bigger, but a lot of the hesder guys dropped out because of the public statement that the head of Tzanchanim made about the people who serve shorter services.

Like everything in Israel except for the army, the gibush didn't start on time. It takes place at Tel Hashomer base in Tel Aviv. We were told to be there by 8am, but people trickled in until past 9. So just a lot of waiting around. Once everyone was there, they asked us to form lines in front of some chayalim to show our ID and receive a lengthy questionnaire. There were a few announcements from mefakdim about the gibush like the schedule and the medical check from some while we were answering the questionnaire. After some time, they started calling names and we were placed in groups of 30, the group being called a tzevet. In addition, each person was given a number that was written on our hands. Every so often, to make sure everyone was there, we were told to call out our numbers in order. This was the first of many many number callouts. My tzevet seemed to have a lot of English speakers in it, some of whom I knew from Yeshiva or elsewhere.

The next place we walked to was the doctor's station. Here our temperatures and heartbeats were taken and doctors notes checked. We were told beforehand to bring doctors checkups in order to be allowed into the gibush: very important. So after waiting about an hour and a half until everyone was done, we were led to where we would be spending the next 24 hours. In this area there were about 30 tents, bathrooms and showers, a place where everyone can gather and some trailers. Our mefaked told us to go over to the trailers, hand in our IDs and get our uniforms. The uniforms consisted of pants, a shirt, a belt, a hat, and a canteen. We put our uniforms on the beds we had chosen earlier but wore our hats and brought our canteens back to the mefaked.
Once we were all back we were told to set our watches for 1 minute and we all raced to the bathrooms to fill our canteens. By the way, EVERYTHING is timed. And if the time is not respected, we are given a punishment. So after showing the mefaked our canteens, we stood back in a chet. Then he asked us who could drink it the fastest (750mL). One kid said 40 seconds , but then someone else drained it in 11 seconds, apparently a record. Luckily, we only had to drink them in 1 minute, but even that can be fairly difficult. To make sure we were finished, standard procedure is to lift the canteens over our heads and flip them over. After filling them up again, and putting them in our bags, we were sent to lunch.

The food on the base is very good and there is plenty of it! After lunch we davened Mincha and lined up again. Once back in our groups, we were all told to change into running clothes for the baror. The baror is the basic fitness test in the IDF. In order to score a 100, you must run 2km in under 6:50, then very soon after complete 75 pushups and 86 situps in a row. Luckily, this year we only did the run because I can hardly reach 25 in a row. Every year is different. Some years they have it, some years not. So as we are all sitting there waiting to get new numbers for running, some kid obviously in dire need of the bathroom runs up to to the mefaked to ask permission to go. He doesn't let him. Then another kid asks. Finally a chayelet announces that whoever needs to go can go. About 70 people stand up and go. As a matter of fact, everyone was peeing everywhere every 15 minutes during the gibush. So much water!

The running was done in groups of 40, alphabetically. Another number is written on our arms. Some bored mafeked also drew pictures on some arms too. Within a few minutes we are walking to the big field where we will run the 2km. But first, a chayelet instructs us in a warmup. Then we all line up on the starting line and off we go. The track isn't so wide so it is hard to pass people at the beginning (but there was no way I was passing anyone). The terrain is sandy and there are a couple small hills which definitely made it a lot more difficult to run. It is a one kilometer track and there is a chayal at the end of the 1km who marks your arm when you reach him. But it was really disheartening to see people on the way back when I hadn't reached the halfway mark. On my run, there were a few people who were walking. At the end, you shout out your number to some chayelot at the end and it's over. I'm pretty sure I ran it in about 10 minutes as usual, which is lucky, because I heard later that the cutoff was 10:30.

After the run we tried on our uniforms, definitely one of the more enjoyable parts of the gibush. It's a cool feeling the first time you put them on. They're surprisingly comfortable!! They also let us exchange the uniforms if they didn't fit. (As I am looking back on this post after finishing training, it reminds me of a kid who I remember from the gibush. He is probably 6'4 and his pants barely made it to his shins. He serves in my machlacka and is one of my close friends.)  After that, we lined up in uniforms and canteens and proceeded to drink another full one. Then we started to prepare the equipment for the gibush. I will come back to that.

At about 6, we were sent to dinner. As we were eating, there were a few guys in regular clothes saying their goodbyes. Unfortunately for them, they had run in over 10:30 and were sent home. Luckily, myself and all my friends passed (just). After dinner we davened maariv and went back to line up. The mefaked tried his best to teach us how to line up in shloshot (parallel lines of three people) but some people apparently haven't yet learned to count to three. So everyone lines up in their groups and waits while the mefakdim meet and joke amongst themselves. Then they announce that everyone present passed the baror and that we are being put into yet another new tzevet, the one for the gibush. I don't think very many people failed. Each new tzevet consists of about 22 people and a new mefaked. Again we are given new numbers, one for our new tzevet and one for our individual number within the tzevet. By now we all look like kids in kindergarten with all the marker on our hands. Once in our new tzevet, we drink another full canteen (I think someone actually threw up), prepare the equipment again and are told that we have until 3:45am to be back there lined up. The army law requires 6 hours of sleep a night to be given so we end the night at about 8:30.

It took me a while to fall asleep that night because of a monster headache, but I did manage to get a few hours of sleep. Thanks to some good advice, I brought some warm clothes to offset the cold. They do provide covers but the Hebrew name for it, scavius, already makes my skin itch. I was also advised that it would be better to sleep in the cold without them than to use the scavius.

A few hours later, in uniform and with full canteens, we line up. We were given sandwiches and tea but as soon as I got my sandwich (I didn't want to drink the tea because I KNEW they were going to make us drink our annoying canteens) my tzevet lined up. I asked my mefaked if I could do netilat yadaim to eat the sandwich. "What's netilat yadaim?" he asked. "You need to do that in order to eat it? No, put it back and line up." Okay. Very army-like.

For the third and final time, we get another mefaked. This one is a miluimnik (reserve) and he will be commanding us in the physical part of the gibush. After explaining a few things to us and warming up, we set off for the fields with our equipment. The equipment consists of two stretchers (one open and one folded on a backpack), two jerry cans on backpacks, five empty backpacks, and a sandbag for each person. This is where the gibush really starts. We are about to embark on probably the hardest physical exercises of our lives, until the army really starts of course. So we walk about 10 minutes into the field to a dirt hill about 7-8 meters high and 18-20 meters in length in the dark night with ruts in it. The perfect place for sprinting!! And that is exactly what we did for the next 30 minutes or so. Well, we may have walked a few near the end from sheer exhaustion. Also, in between some of the sprints, we were told to stand in shloshot with sandbags raised over our heads and with our eyes closed. Time has never in my life gone as slowly as it then did. After a few minutes, my shoulders simply gave out and I had to rest it on my head. We repeated this process a bunch of times, to the point that it became too difficult for some people and they quit. My number must have been recorded a dozen times. In the first hour, out of 22 people, about 5-6 quit. I was told clearly before the gibush that no matter how hard it gets, even if you can't physically do it, just show effort. They are not looking for trained soldiers, but people with motivation that can be trained to become soldiers. The first hour is always the hardest and each activity isn't longer than about 30 minutes. I don't think that at this point they can even just tell you to leave. You have to leave on your own. But apparently the physical exertion and the mental tests were too much for those 5-6. The mefaked would yell at us and say things like " You're females! You are all terrible! You are the worst gibush I have ever seen!" But of course he only says these things to see who can't handle the pressure. And it worked.

By the way, as part of this physical part of the gibush, the main mefaked brought along 4-5 other mefakdim. They have a few purposes. The first is to write down your number anytime you do something good or bad or finished first or last. But who knows if they are actually writing anything. The second is to annoy you. They wear warm clothes, eat, drink coffee and joke around. The third is to intimidate you. For example, one of the mefakdim stared at me for a while just to see what I would do. Basically, all these things add up to more mental tests.

I can't remember exactly which activity was next but I think it was the hanging. So we take all the equipment over to this big square with pull up bars above. In this activity we were asked to hang on it and yell our numbers when we fall off. The next thing was similar, except it was a group activity, meaning they watch to see how we perform in a group. He told us that everybody had to be hanging except for three, so we had to work out switches. Of course the first few times there was a lot of confusion and we had to run or do situps, but after a while we got the hang of it (no pun intended).

The next activity was crawling. Although we all were probably expert crawlers at some point in our lives, the army style of crawling is extremely different and surprisingly tiring. So we were led to a patch of sand about 10 meters by 10 meters in size. Little did we know though, that just under the thin layer of sand was bedrock. Then we had crawling races to see who would finish fastest and have their numbers recorded. Again, this went on for about 30 minutes until everyone was so tired that the mefaked decided to move on.

The next activity was a combination of sprints and stretcher. A loaded stretcher was placed at the starting line and at a distance of 10-15 meters was a backpack. The goal was to sprint to the backpack, round it, and sprint back and grab the stretcher. If you were one of the first four to grab it, you were rewarded with getting to run it back to the backpack and return. Everyone else had to do the sprints another time. However, if you had grabbed the stretcher, your number was recorded. I have never seen people, especially yeshiva boys, push and cut corners like they did here. But I did manage to get it a few times. We probably did this about 20 times before we moved on.

The next activity was a game, another exercise to see how we worked in a group. Our goal was to get everyone over a wall with a pole, a barrel and a tire. But there was an area in front of the wall that we couldn't enter. As usual, this was also timed and we were given just 3 minutes. We got a few people over the wall, but to get everyone over in such a short amount of time was pretty much impossible. So I guess we failed?

Either way, the next activity was a talking exercise. The mefaked asked us, "Are you for or against the use of solar energy in Israel?" So after being given a few minutes to discuss, two representatives were chosen by us to speak. One of them started saying something that would make him seem smart but was totally unnecessary in answering the question. So the main mefaked stopped him and another mefaked started laughing at him uncontrollably. I even had to try not to laugh.

By now the time was around 7:30 and we knew it was going to be over by 8ish. There was only one thing left: the masa. The masa is a a hike with a strether but with switches. It wasn't very difficult because it was a distance of just 2km but to get a chance to carry the stretcher was almost impossible. After all, it is a competition and people were hogging the strether as much as they could. Not only that, but when the people under the stretcher ask for a switch, people push to get it. I've even heard a story of someone tripping someone under the stretcher to get it from him. Of course the tripper didn't make Tzanchanim and the trippee did. But the masa didn't last very long and wasn't that difficult either. At the end though, the mefaked asked us to decide as a group who we thought were the four strongest people and put them under the stretcher for a final sprint to the finish. And then suddenly it was all over! We made it! Everyone was exhausted, all dirty, but happy to see their friends who had finished. Luckily, all 9 guys from my yeshiva who tried the gibush made it through. After a few well deserved minutes of rest, we gathered in our tzevet with our mefaked. He told us that we all did a good job despite what he yelled at us earlier while we were doing some stretches. Two chayalim came over and asked all of us to show our elbows and knees. But one kid's pants were too tight at the bottom so they wouldn't go past his calves. The only way to show his knees was to drop his pants. That was kind of awkward for the chayelet that was there so she walked away. I thought that was comedic. The reason why they checked our elbows and knees was because of the crawling. Some people were all cut up. But most weren't.

The next things we did were change out of our uniforms, give them back in exchange for our IDs ( we had to make sure to give back everything or we wouldn't pass), shower, daven, and get breakfast. Once again the food was great: rolls, cheese, and shocko. Then we waited to get called for our interviews. It took about an hour but eventually I was called by my number. The interviews took place in nearby tents with either two or three older mefakdim. The interviews are like a second chance to prove ourselves for Tzanchanim. The interviewers have no idea how we did in the physical part so you can totally reinvent yourself. In fact, the interview is probably more important than the physical portion. The interview was quite professional, but they were also nice. I was told by someone before the interviews that they switch up the lengths of the interviews just to mess with you. Mine lasted only about 5 minutes and was basically two questions: "Tell us about yourself" and the more important question "Why to you want to go to Tzanchanim?". I can't say my interview was as strong as I had wanted. I didn't get excited about my answer for the second question. Also, I am serving only 14 months and told them that I probably wouldn't stay in Israel afterwards. But they did compliment me on my Hebrew. Also, a couple of times they stopped me to ask more questions on what I answered and told me to go meet with a mashakitash to become a chayal boded. And then it was over at about 1pm. Results come within the month.






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