On the eve of Rosh Hashana a few years ago, I didn’t for prepare for this special day as I normally would. I didn’t review the prayers in advance as is my usual habit; I didn’t hum the special tunes of the beautiful poems that appear throughout the services; I didn’t complete my study of Talmud Roshs Hashana, my usual form of preparation for the holiday.

On the night of Rosh Hashana a few years ago,  I didn’t read the first chapter of  “The Gates of Repentance” in preparation for the first of the approaching Ten Days of Repentance. I didn’t open a single book or read a single word.

And I wasn’t alone. It was the day before Rosh Hashana and amongst an entire division, not one person found even a half hour to sit by himself and contemplate the approaching Day of Judgment. We all knew it was Rosh Hashana, but… – we didn’t open a book, we didn’t reflect on the past year. It was night, and in a few short hours Rosh Hashana would begin. It was Rosh Hashana eve … and we didn’t do that.

On that Rosh Hashana eve we were on the trek with stretchers. We were on an exhausting 24 kilometer trek along dusty natural trails. I will never forget how on Rosh Hashana night , when everyone is feeling the pain of penitence, we were feeling the pain of the hike. When everyone is thinking of the Days of Awe, we were thinking of the moment we would finally reach our base and complete this trek.

On this Rosh Hashana, we didn’t open a prayer book – we relived a fellow soldier. We didn’t sit by ourselves in reflection and contemplation – we rushed to carry three heavy stretchers at a maddening pace. We didn’t immerse ourselves in the holy water of a ritual bath – we bathed in stream of sweat. We didn’t complete any Jewish text of study, we completed a journey. And perhaps, the same sweet and joyful sense one experiences in the self reflective process of repentance, we experienced upon our return to base when we raised the stretchers shouting, “We have arrived!”

For us, for the Rosh Hashana of that year, that was the best preparation we could have had for the holiday. It was the most fitting introduction to the ten Days of Awe. It was an opportunity to correct our mistakes of previous treks in which we fell behind. It was a time to right the wrongs of previous times, the ones in which we perhaps didn’t help our fellow soldiers enough or those in which we didn’t apply our full potential. This was our way to prepare for  the “tomorrow” of our lives.

To this day, ever Rosh Hashana eve I remember this difficult training exercise, the 24 kilometer  trek with stretchers. The trek, that in my memory was the best trek we ever had to do.

Download our Rosh Hashana Flyer.

---