My Week on "The Strip."

Well..It all turned out to be a lot more interesting than I had anticipated. I was in Israel for nearly three weeks. I had joined a group from my shul who were going as Sar-El volunteers. Ten of us were stationed at a base outside of Rehovot for a week. We did mostly warehouse work. A fellow from San Francisco whose cousin coordinates all of the volunteer activities was tacked on to our Baltimore based group. He turned out to be a nice guy and quite friendly. I asked him if he could intercede with his cousin and find something interesting for me to do for my next week since everyone else from Baltimore was leaving. I was, therefore, sent to work at a base at the border of Israel, Gaza and Egypt. Our group of 10 guys was tasked with laying a concertina wire fence for several kilometers just inside the Israeli border. The purpose of the barbed wire was to slow down infiltrators coming over the Egyptian border at night. Here are some pictures. Being alone in the desert made an impression on me I won't soon forget. I came as close to the the commandment we read in the Haggadah at Passover-Bachol dor va dor, hayav adam leerot et atzmo, keelu who yatza memitzraiyim -as I ever will. It states: In every generation an individual must see himself as if he (personally) had gone out from Egypt.

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