A traditional swearing-in ceremony for Nachal Brigade trainees, scheduled for the Western Wall this past Thursday, was cancelled and held instead near their Negev base - for lack of funds. Hamodia reported on Friday that this was the first time since the Six-Day War that this Nachal ceremony has not been held at the Kotel. Nachal, one of four main IDF brigades - the others are Givati, Golani, and the Paratroopers - is a military cadre unique to Israel. A Hebrew acronym for Fighting Pioneer Youth, Nachal is a framework that combines combat unit military service with civilian work in a newly founded kibbutz or moshav.
Every new soldier receives a Tanach (Bible) at the dramatic swearing-in ceremony, and the Divine charge to Joshua is dramatically read aloud: “Every place your feet tread, I have given to you… No man shall be able to stand against you… Be strong and of great courage, to observe the entire Torah…”
Military sources informed Arutz-7 that buses to the Western Wall would have cost some 30,000 shekels, and "this money would have come at the expense of training exercises. The government wants to make drastic cutbacks to the army, and we have to start somewhere."
Every new soldier receives a Tanach (Bible) at the dramatic swearing-in ceremony, and the Divine charge to Joshua is dramatically read aloud: “Every place your feet tread, I have given to you… No man shall be able to stand against you… Be strong and of great courage, to observe the entire Torah…”
Military sources informed Arutz-7 that buses to the Western Wall would have cost some 30,000 shekels, and "this money would have come at the expense of training exercises. The government wants to make drastic cutbacks to the army, and we have to start somewhere."