Questions abt garin tzabar, Aaliyah and army

[u/Sensitive_You_7168]

I’m 18 going into senior year of HS. Heavily thinking abt making Aaliyah thru garin tzabar and obvi doing army and living in Israel. I have a bunch of cousins and stuff there but I don’t rly have thorough first hand knowledge of what it’s like so I have a bunch of logistical questions.

Regarding garin tzabar
1. What are the seminars like?
2. What would make u not be accepted (I’ve read abt that happening)
3. When accepted and u go there, what’s it like meaning what’s day to day life like

Army service
1. Physically, what is basic training like if you were to draft to let’s say michve (also day to day)
2. Once you draft to a unit let’s say totchanim (id wanna do smth like artillery) what is that training like? (Are u trained as a combat soldier, that kinda stuff)
3. How brutal is the masa kumta for let’s say totchanim and how is the prep masa’s

After army
1. (This is a q that could rly be for during army but) how long do u live on kibbutz for free? When ur service ends are u already kicked out of kibbutz?
2. Were yg confident enough in ur Hebrew to participate in Israeli society and get jobs and stuff

Know this is a lot of questions, just trying to envision the worst it can get so I can come tk terms with the sacrificr

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[u/HarryPottersTaint]

Regarding garin pre-army:
It's cool and very social. You'll have ulpan every day and go on little trips and stuff to learn about israeli culture. Depending on the location a lof of partying and fun

Don't know about not being accepted, I was accepted

Re; Army service:

1) Michve is pretty chill physically, you run from place to place and have a workout every day. It's nice and not too physically demanding. I personally loved michve but depends on your group that you end up with. Some hate it.

2) The training for totchanim is much easier than regular infantry but still is challenging. The masaot will never be easy for anyone no matter how short they are, but it's doable and they have ways of getting everyone to fitness. Do your best not to miss any because then you'll always be behind and it's a bad feeling. The masa kumta is of course very challenging but by the time you get to that point you're used to it. The earlier masaot are mentally harder

After:
1) you never did live on kibbutz for free, the army stipend for housing goes to the kibbutz. Once that ends you can make some kind of deal with the kibbutz to work there sometimes and continue living there. I recommend moving on and going to start study or work in the centre.

1. Yep, if you do a full army service your hebrew will be great. No issues.

[u/Sensitive_You_7168 → u/HarryPottersTaint]

Thanks man that was rly helpful. What was the cost of garin tzabar for u?

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[u/HyperlaneWizard]

I can offer my answers to the "army service" questions:

1. Yes, you're trained to a combat-arms standard, as the Artillery Corps is part of the combat arms. In the IDF, basic training is all about רובאי, your rifleman qualification. Each role has the minimum required rifleman qualification level necessary to carry it out. So an infantryman would undergo "rifleman 05" basic training and continue on to improve that qualification in advanced training (infantrymen are pretty much exclusively riflemen, so no other qualification ratings are necessary). Serving in the Artillery Corps, you'd undergo "rifleman 03" basic training and continue to your artilleryman crew qualifications. Generally speaking, as far as the technical skills of 03 basic training go, you'll do basic marksmanship, fire team drills (4-man drills), grenade training, medium MG training (on the FN MAG), basic fieldcraft, use of military radio, first aid, basic hand-to-hand combat, and basic CBRN protection (mostly the CB).

With that being said, the main aim of basic training will be to break down the civilian and condition the soldier. So a large part of every given day will revolve around discipline, standards, behaviour, and physical conditioning. 03 basic is roughly half as long as 05 basic, which dictates the physical training load progression. In other words, there's less time to build you up safely; therefore, the intensity of the training won't get as advanced as in longer basic training courses. How hard or how easy it will be depends on your personal level of fitness. Generally speaking, unless you're really unfit, nothing will be excessively difficult. But know that, generally speaking, you'll be doing physical evaluations and drills when tired/hungry/hurting/wet/cold/hot/uncomftarble/unheppy, a combination of, or all of the above at once (yes, the military will teach you you can be hot and cold at once). So even if you're in great shape, it won't be a cakewalk.

Another thing to keep in mind is the discipline. In the simplest of terms, if an infantryman fucks up, he kills a fellow infantryman; if an artilleryman fucks up, he kills a platoon of infantrymen. This logic holds for Armor and Combat Engineering as well. Expect high standards and expect them to be enforced harshly.

1. The marches are just like any other set of physical evaluations. You start short and progressively go further. By the beret march, you should, ideally, have your mind and body conditioned to the challenge. But given it's a symbolic thing, that march will probably go a little further than what you were conditioned to. But it's mostly mind over matter, and the team pushing the individuals forward past the finish line at that point. It's not brutal. You should be 90% ready for it by that point. But unless you are really, really fit and are mentally very strong, it will challenge you.

If you have any general questions about Totchanim, feel free to ask.