10 | OCTOBER 28 • 2021

PURELY COMMENTARY

essay
To My Youngest Daughter
Upon Her Joining the IDF

D

ear D.,
Last month,
[undercover count-
er-terrorism] Duvdevan
commandos — a commander
and his signal operator —
were shot multiple times
while chasing
Hamas terror-
ists. One bullet
pierced one of
the command-
er’s grenades.
Thanks to an
Israeli techno-
logical inno-
vation, the grenade didn’t
explode.
A medic ran to them, defy-
ing flying bullets, following
the chest wound protocols,
including intubating the
commander, saving his life.
Treating the soldier, the same
medic violated the same pro-
tocols, perhaps remembering
an update not to intubate if
blood pressure plummets.
That brave deviation saved
the soldier’s life.
The brigade’s medical
officer then changed the
medivac’s rendezvous site.
Her decision compressed the
evacuation timetable — also
saving their lives.
That’s the kind of army
you joined yesterday —
and those are the kinds of
life-and-death, on-the-fly,
split-second, crazy, cre-
ative, courageous, some-
times self-sacrificing, often
risk-taking decisions you will
start making tomorrow.
Of course, we, your par-
ents, will never know about

them. The one thing we
know about your service is
that we’re not supposed to
know anything about your
service.
But we know you. And we
are already proud of you and
all that you and your peers
offer our country, our people
and our cause — this world-
wide fight for civilization,
sanity and safety.
Like most of us today, you
are among the biggest win-
ners of the Great Historical
Lottery. We’re weirdos in
Jewish history — Jews born
free and comfortable.
Entering senior year, you
had worked hard — gain-
ing maturity, creativity and
improvisational abilities
from leading 70 kids weekly
with three other teenagers
as a Bnei Akiva madrichah
(counselor), while gaining
book smarts and good val-
ues in high school. You had
shown tremendous discipline

in studying, violin-playing
and balleting. But you had
never needed to demonstrate
much resilience.
Then corona hit.
I watched as you absorbed
blow after blow, cancellation
after cancellation, your senior
year, with a smile on your
face, making the best of it.
The best example of your
buoyancy came when you
were distributing food city-
wide to needy Jerusalemites
during the lockdown. The
police stopped you 12 times
one day. One officer nabbed
you as her shift began —
then again when it ended.
You showed your permits
patiently, taking it all in
good spirits — even when
that skeptical first-and-last
officer threatened to arrest
you.
You brought that same
flexibility and strength to
your premilitary year. The
living conditions were, ahem,

not five-star. Corona made
the studies on and off, while
limiting your volunteer
opportunities.
Nevertheless, when you
were there, you were happy.
When you were sent home,
you were happy. And when
you were in that never-never
land called Zoom, you were
happy, too. Little seemed to
faze you. The payoff was in
great teachers, great friends
and a great grounding for the
army — and for life.
Now, as you, my fourth
child, join the Israeli army,
I watch through competing
historical lenses as an oleh
dad. It’s easiest, and emo-
tionally safest, to see this
all in Jewish historical time,
marveling at our ability to
defend ourselves, and your
opportunity to contribute
to Israel, the greatest Jewish
adventure in millennia.
Zooming in, it’s hardest to
compare your timeline and

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IDF soldiers

Gil Troy