Gadna

This past week I finished Gadna, a weeklong program made to educate youth about what it is like to be in the Israeli Defense Force. For 4 days, I did what seemed to be useless activities, going countless times from the shape of a “chet” to two lines, and rewashing plates until an inspector arbitrarily decided that I was done. At the time, I was frustrated with these activities. I try to do everything with a clear purpose, and to do anything otherwise seemed completely pointless.

            Now that I am completely done with Gadna and am able to reflect on the program, I realize that things that may appear pointless at first are not always actually pointless. Running back and forth created a disciplinary atmosphere, and made me take the program more seriously. The constant rewashing of the plates may not have been completely arbitrary; I was probably asked to rewash the plates because I hadn’t washed the plates well enough the first time and was just too foolish to notice.

            Not primarily knowing the meaning behind things is not applicable to only Gadna. People are drawn away from things that they do not know the reason of. For instance, people do not want to participate in more traditional Judaism because they do not see reason behind following many of the rules of the Torah. But maybe there is a hidden reason for following the Torah that isn’t so clear, that takes actual participation in to understand the reason behind. Maybe, as reform Jews, we should give seemingly “pointless” things a chance, before completely dismissing them as useless.