We saw people and places, got a perspective on daily life, and felt secure in a way that would otherwise never have been possible. To the north of Tel Aviv, perched on the top of a hill belonging to the Tel Aviv University campus, hidden behind a gate and two sets of security check points, the Beth Hatefutsoh, or Museum of the Jewish Diaspora, is a dazzling achievement in museumology that teaches an important lesson about the Jewish community spread throughout the world. Today, Jews speak of this dispersion as the Diaspora, the word having been adopted from Greek, and take great pride in having survived as a community pushed to the four corners of the earth. It really is an outstanding accomplishment. From the time of the Land of Israel to the modern-day State of Israel, oral tradition and law has somehow, more or less, continued to unify the Jews in the Diaspora.
Most young people start preparing for their time in the army a few years before it happens.
To accomplish this almost always involves getting good grades in a particular school subject. But there are other ways as well that require a significant time investment. This was a long day. A very long day. So long that not all of us could do everything.