While waiting for it to begin, they had us wait in a nearby structure that was air-conditioned, and it turned out to be the base synagogue (actually, one of the synagogue's. we passed another one on the way out). In the synagogue they have a tallis and tefillin gemach. I would note here that while my son is in a Haredi unit, the base they were on for the medics course was a regular base that they took a part of. The base is not set up as a Haredi base, so the shul and the tefillin gemach were especially interesting to see.
The ceremony was small - just the small group of young men in the course and a few family members. We were surprised to find out just moments before the ceremony that our son was selected as one of the two soldiers who excelled and were given special certificates. We learned that there are two versions of this - one boy received the certificate of "hitztayen" and the other, our son, "lamofet".
The two that excelled had their medic pin pinned to their uniforms by the important guy with the lighter uniform (sgan aluf I think, but not sure. I dont understand or know how to identify the rankings).
Had a nice dinner afterwards in Beer Sheva and now he gets a bit of vacation before going back to his regular base for advanced training.
One more interesting incident - while walking out of the restaurant in Beer Sheva, a woman walked by. I noticed that she seemed to hesitate and was looking at us, but I didn't think much of it, and kept going towards the car. She called out to me and when I didn't respond, as I didn't realize she was calling me, she came back towards me. When I turned around she gave herself a bracha, or a wish, that her family should be like ours, our family looks so nice. I was a bit stunned and just responded amen and God willing, and then she went on her way, as did we.
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