In fact, our clothes are more than a covering

Sha’ah ba’yetziah!” These were the words every IDF soldier dreaded hearing. Loosely translated as “an hour when you’re headed out,” it meant that for some infraction you would have to wait an hour after your unit was released on weekend pass, before heading out. 

I vividly recall the time I was given that punishment after a particularly difficult few weeks in Lebanon. And it was not even from one of my own commanders. I had managed to get a ride on Friday morning south from the Bekaa valley (where we were stationed opposite the Syrians), to a large base just over the border in Southern Lebanon, near a village called Marja’oun. 

After finding out there was a truck leaving in about half an hour I had enough time to walk over to the canteen to get something for breakfast. But having been in Lebanon for nearly three weeks, I had completely forgotten I was back on a large base where army dress code regulations were enforced, and it wasn’t long before a sergeant major, seeing me walking outside without my beret on my head, ordered me to stop and present myself. Before I knew it, he was dressing me down for not wearing my beret.

Incredulous that I was being given a hard time for such a minor infraction after all I had been through the previous three weeks I just said “sorry,” and walked into the canteen. Big mistake. I had just upset the king of a very little kingdom. So, after a serious dressing down in front of everyone, I was given “Sha’ah ba’yetziah,” and it was very clear he intended to enforce it. 

Normally, if this had been a bus station or our base in the Jordan valley I would have resigned myself to a lost hour (precious as that was on a Friday at the beginning of a weekend pass), pulled out a book, and taken it in stride. But missing this ride at 10:30 am on a Friday from Southern Lebanon could easily mean getting stuck there for Shabbat; rides were not always easy to come by and, at a certain point, when it got late in the day, the roads were off limits for non-mission oriented traffic.