How to get the most out of Sar-El

By Avi Feldman

I started doing Sar-El in 2004 after a friend told me about it and he told how easy it was for me to join their program  As I too wanted “to help Israel", I went to our Aliyah office at Beth Weizmann where I very excitedly enlisted to help the Israeli army do whatever they wanted me to do.

 

Just like the Israeli army, all the Sar-El volunteers had different backgrounds, different nationalities, different socio economic circumstances, different levels of Jewish observance, different reasons for doing it, different languages and different political persuasions. So Sar-El had the same problems that the army has and like the army, its uniformity in dress, order and authority served as a wonderful melting pot for all those differences.

 

We quickly learned to work as a volunteer's team and not as team of individuals by listening and the obeying orders of those whom we were serving even though they were half our age and didn't have our experience.

 

The advantage of being in a team was that one plus one equaled three. Or for example in my last group of seven men and six ladies, seven plus six equaled twenty. Even the army was quick to recognize us as a team and subsequently rewarded our team with better and far more responsible work. That enabled us to obtain that incredible feeling at the end of the work day of having done our bit. Teams are resultantly rewarded by the army through special excursions, base awards, posters, medals, photos and one base even made us a special DVD for us to take home with us.

 

Teams are also recognized for their contributions because on three separate occasions, we were shown off to the soldiers of those particular bases and subsequently applauded by them which gave all of us an incredibly good feeling. Good teams don't tolerate individuals putting down fellow members. Good teams also don't tolerate members being lazy and definitely don’t tolerate those who don't want to do their bit to help the army that we all are there to help.

 

So as you can see, to get the most out of your Sar-El experience, you should help create a team to reap its benefits. To do this you have to:

AFTER ALL ……THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO DO ANYTHING IN LIFE….THERE’S A RIGHT WAY OR A WRONG WAY; THERE’S A HARD WAY OR AN EASY WAY; AND THERE’S A GOOD WAY OR A BAD WAY. 

 

SO WHATEVER WAY YOU CHOOSE,  REMEMBER YOUR REASON FOR DOING SAR-EL IN THE FIRST PLACE