. Scrubbing inside the indentations of the metal casing, wiping down the lenses, and then drying the whole piece with a compressed air gun was cool enough. But holding the scope up to eye-level to check that the lens is smudge-feee and seeing the orange dot through the glass — the orange dot that pinpoints a target — was, to put it mildly, a lot cooler.</p>
<p>
Still, though, the scope is only one small piece out of many and I wanted to feel like I was really “working with the guns,” so much so that I eventually asked the Sar-El coordinator if I could be assigned to a base where the armory needed more help. I lucked out on my fourth and final round of this program: Here, every rack of guns requires multiple jobs to be done. I was not the only volunteer who was excited to start.</p>
<p>
This is where I learned how to take apart a <em>tavor</em> — this itself is something I never thought I would be able to say. Once the gun was separated into several parts, the other volunteers and I dipped each piece into a vat of vile-looking cleaning fluid (kerosine mixed with oil), carefully brushed all the dirt out of the crevices, and dried them all individually with the compressed air machine. On a different day, we oiled and cleaned fully assembled M16s and recorded their serial numbers for inventory.</p>
<p>
I feel like I should clarify that guns, as a general concept, are not something that I'm a fan of in any way; I probably could not stand to be in the same room as a firearm in America, simply because I don't think I would trust anyone I know to be responsible enough to own one. But I see guns differently in Israel: they're simultaneously not that big of a deal — I see more people carrying guns than purses just walking down the street here — and an honorable symbol of the defense of the state of Israel.</p>
<p>
Which brings me to the main reason that volunteers are so willing to do this task that soldiers find so tedious: It's the closest we get to feeling like we're actually in the army. Or, more accurately, it's the most we feel we're making a real difference.</p>
<p>
Cleaning guns may not have the same tangible results as <a href=)
“>packing soldiers' kitbags does or invoke the same sense of ingenuity as did Editor's Picks
What Ever Happened to the LA Times?
Dan Schnur
Who Are the Jews On Joe Biden’s Cabinet?
Ryan Torok
No Labels: The Group Fighting for the Political Center
Larry Greenfield
Latest Articles
“Just a Few Sleeps Away” by Mike Nichols
Boaz Hepner
Rabbi Kaplan Named JCC Camps Senior VP; Maman Events, JFSLA, Temple of the Arts
Jewish Journal Staff
Listen — A poem for Parsha Ha’Azinu
Rick Lupert
When Celebrities Endorsed a Different “Free Palestine”
Rafael Medoff
A Bisl Yom Kippur~ Plenty of Regrets
Rabbi Nicole Guzik
