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Ask Harel13 Anything

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Apparently this used to be a thing, moderators nearly-suicidely leaving themselves open to any attack by making a throw-anything-at-me thread. But I do love talking about myself, so here goes:

Username: Harel13

Meaning of username: Harel (my first name) + the number 13. Shocker, I know right? Actually, 13 is a number with some significance in Judaism, so that's why I chose 13 (contrary to common misconceptions, it's not because I have twelve siblings named Harel).

Name: Harel (didn't see that one coming, huh?)

Country: Israel (lived in the USA for 3.5 years as a kid; recently requested to vote for the first time in the USA federal elections but unfortunately received no reply yet...)

A little about me: I'm an Orthodox Jew. In Israeli terms, I'd be described as somewhere between National Religious to Ultra-Orthodox National (those are fancy terms for Orthodox Jews who have Zionistic views but differ on some nuances and in religiosity levels).

I started a couple of months ago my 7th year in my Hesder Yeshiva and will most likely head to university next year.

I served for a year and five months in the IDF, first completing Basic and Advanced Training in the Artillery Corps, then moving to the non-combat position of Mashak Dat (according to an old government document found online, this can be translated as "religious coordinator"), which is like being an assistant to the unit's military rabbi, in the same brigade. I also became the unofficially official graphic designer of my brigade's rabbinate division. About a month before discharge, I moved to the Rabbinate Corps' administrative base, where I spent half of my time chasing high-level military rabbis and the other half of my time lounging about doing nothing.

Political views: I'm a right-wing conservative sort of guy (comes with the kippah) (nah, kidding, there are religious guys on all sides of the political spectrum). Here in Israel I've always voted for the Bayit Yehudi party. During the last two elections I volunteered to help get people out to vote.

Interests: Torah study, in particular Tanach, writing essays on my Torah-based research, drawing, reading, creative writing, graphic design, walking, hiking, listening to music, collecting and discussing weird/interesting IDF facts, in particular artillery facts.

Some random facts about myself: While I like drawing animals, I don't really like them close up; The first time I ever petted a dog was four years ago; I once wrote an op-ed which was published in an Orthodox Israeli niche-news site; I volunteer in a non-profit organization that is working to better the IDF; mentioned above in interests - I write essays for the fun of it. I'd post some here, but they're in Hebrew...

Feel free to ask me stuff, but please keep it clean. :)
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Have your interests ever drawn you to writing fiction (fantasy, science fiction, mystery, etc)?
Yeah. Most of my story writing is fiction. Last year I did NaNoWriMo, writing around 30k words of a novel really loosely-based on my experiences in the IDF (haven't finished it yet, though). I have a lot of story ideas, but sadly I'm better at doing the background world-building than the actual writing.
 

Rival

se Dex me saut.
Staff member
Premium Member
When you dangle your feet over the edge of the bed do you have an irrational fear a random hand is going to grab you?

Also yes please, some military tales.
 

Eddi

Agnostic
Premium Member
Hi Harel, I have a question for you:

What's that thing you have as your avatar?
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
When you dangle your feet over the edge of the bed do you have an irrational fear a random hand is going to grab you?
No.
Also yes please, some military tales.
There's one story that is quite funny, but I'd have to think about how to translate the joke to English, so I'll skip it for now.

Let's see...one night we parked our Howitzers in the middle of the Negev Desert during Advanced Training and took shifts for guard duty. In the middle of my shift, I heard voices and eventually saw a couple of shadowy figures with small green flashlights nearing our encampment. It sounded like they were speaking in some foreign language. They came closer and closer, and I was trying to decide whether to initiate the "stranger-danger" protocol. Then they veered away from the encampment, making a wide circle. So I relaxed. A few minutes later I lowered my head for a few moments and when I raised it again, I was shocked to see a whole lineup of green lights coming towards me. I thought it was a massive Bedouin ambush (Negev Bedouins, while being citizens of Israel, are known to often steal from military bases and encampments. It's a sad truth). When the first couple of figures neared the encampment, I initiated the protocol and shouted to them to ID themselves. They answered: Don't shoot, we're also IDF, we're from battalion x of [artillery corps' advanced training base]...in other words, false alarm.

Whew. I was actually terrified because I'm not very assertive and I don't like shouting.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Pick any of the following (you may choose more than one):

1. PLEASE, PLEASE!!! I'M BORED!!!
2. I have a few good military anecdotes I might be willing to share...*hint* *hint* :cool:
3. With the power vested in me as mod, I command you!
OK, I'll ask tomorrow, but at my ag-- er, level of maturity-- I may forget.

Oh, btw, I'm going in for knee surgery tomorrow, but my wife wants the doc to perform a lobotomy on me. Does that word mean for him to do the other knee as well?
 

Rival

se Dex me saut.
Staff member
Premium Member
Let's see...one night we parked our Howitzers in the middle of the Negev Desert during Advanced Training and took shifts for guard duty. In the middle of my shift, I heard voices and eventually saw a couple of shadowy figures with small green flashlights nearing our encampment. It sounded like they were speaking in some foreign language. They came closer and closer, and I was trying to decide whether to initiate the "stranger-danger" protocol. Then they veered away from the encampment, making a wide circle. So I relaxed. A few minutes later I lowered my head for a few moments and when I raised it again, I was shocked to see a whole lineup of green lights coming towards me. I thought it was a massive Bedouin ambush (Negev Bedouins, while being citizens of Israel, are known to often steal from military bases and encampments. It's a sad truth). When the first couple of figures neared the encampment, I initiated the protocol and shouted to them to ID themselves. They answered: Don't shoot, we're also IDF, we're from battalion x of [artillery corps' advanced training base]...in other words, false alarm.

Whew. I was actually terrified because I'm not very assertive and I don't like shouting.
Wow, that does sound tense though! And better safe than sorry, if you're unsure.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
What's that thing you have as your avatar?
I found it once when looking up artillery corps stuff on the internet. It's the symbol of an old, inactive artillery battery. It's an artillery shell stylized like a shark with the header "כל איש הוא כריש" which is a bit of old Israeli slang literally meaning "every man is a shark", figuratively meaning, in this context, "every man is an awesome warrior".
 

Rival

se Dex me saut.
Staff member
Premium Member
Did you ever make a conscious decision about following Judaism? I mean, did you ever reach that age after childhood where you start questioning more and sort of have a think about it to yourself, or was it never even in your head to grapple with?
 

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
Apparently this used to be a thing, moderators nearly-suicidely leaving themselves open to any attack by making a throw-anything-at-me thread. But I do love talking about myself, so here goes:

Username: Harel13

Meaning of username: Harel (my first name) + the number 13. Shocker, I know right? Actually, 13 is a number with some significance in Judaism, so that's why I chose 13 (contrary to common misconceptions, it's not because I have twelve siblings named Harel).

Name: Harel (didn't see that one coming, huh?)

Country: Israel (lived in the USA for 3.5 years as a kid; recently requested to vote for the first time in the USA federal elections but unfortunately received no reply yet...)

A little about me: I'm an Orthodox Jew. In Israeli terms, I'd be described as somewhere between National Religious to Ultra-Orthodox National (those are fancy terms for Orthodox Jews who have Zionistic views but differ on some nuances and in religiosity levels).

I started a couple of months ago my 7th year in my Hesder Yeshiva and will most likely head to university next year.

I served for a year and five months in the IDF, first completing Basic and Advanced Training in the Artillery Corps, then moving to the non-combat position of Mashak Dat (according to an old government document found online, this can be translated as "religious coordinator"), which is like being an assistant to the unit's military rabbi, in the same brigade. I also became the unofficially official graphic designer of my brigade's rabbinate division. About a month before discharge, I moved to the Rabbinate Corps' administrative base, where I spent half of my time chasing high-level military rabbis and the other half of my time lounging about doing nothing.

Political views: I'm a right-wing conservative sort of guy (comes with the kippah) (nah, kidding, there are religious guys on all sides of the political spectrum). Here in Israel I've always voted for the Bayit Yehudi party. During the last two elections I volunteered to help get people out to vote.

Interests: Torah study, in particular Tanach, writing essays on my Torah-based research, drawing, reading, creative writing, graphic design, walking, hiking, listening to music, collecting and discussing weird/interesting IDF facts, in particular artillery facts.

Some random facts about myself: While I like drawing animals, I don't really like them close up; The first time I ever petted a dog was four years ago; I once wrote an op-ed which was published in an Orthodox Israeli niche-news site; I volunteer in a non-profit organization that is working to better the IDF; mentioned above in interests - I write essays for the fun of it. I'd post some here, but they're in Hebrew...

Feel free to ask me stuff, but please keep it clean. :)

Favorite ice cream flavor?
 
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