by Les Amdur
The Sochnut recognised that the giyus to Nachal could trigger the biggest aliyah potential ever! As a result, they worked through Telfed, The Misrad Habitachon (Ben Moshe) and the Army, to organise where possible, exposure to Zionist education and knowledge of the country, integrated by way of lectures and tiyulim, in addition to the normal training. One fine day, Samal Rafi gives the command – “Kadimah Tz’ad” and off we go, as usual – on another masah. At the first smoke break he tells us we’ve been “good guys” and have earned a “t’shupar”! We are going on a “tiyul” to see Baron de Rothchild’s Tomb in Zichron Ya’acov
What he didn’t tell us, was that we were going to walk there, from Pardes Chana ! At every subsequent hafsakah, we kept asking the segel – how much farther ? The answer was always the same – “Shama ” pointing Northwards. Eventually we arrived at the foothills of a hill – (mountain to some !).We asked -“Nu, where is the tomb” ? The reply came back -” on the summit”
At this point, Foxie Bernstein threw up his arms and said “I can’t – too many blisters – no energy, etc., etc. Out of the blue – comes little Kenny Cash, compared to Foxie – a varsity forward – 200lb. plus – a strong, muscular giant- Kenny was a puny, not too strong, asthma wheezing midget. Kenny grabs Foxie by the arm and pulls saying – “Don’t worry Foxie – I’ll help you get to the top”!
After schlepping him up (by now, with the help of a few guys), we reached the top and Kenny – proudly proclaims – “See Foxie – we did it!” By this time of course, Foxie was “slightly” humiliated ! Now I’m not so sure whether Kenny would have made it by himself – (I also don’t know how he passed a medical test for Nachal), but I learnt an important lesson that day and was very proud of Kenny !