When 21-year-old Sari Michael of Netanya joined the Caracal Battalion of the IDF in March 2013, her friends at the Bar-Ilan Religious Girls’ high school were surprised. The message conveyed to them by the school’s administration was that the only way for a dati girl to fulfill her military obligations was by doing Sherut Leumi.
But, as Sari explains, she came from a fighting family. “My grandfather was an instructor in the Navy’s Shayetet 13 special forces, a highly esteemed unit. I have an uncle in the Givati Brigade, another is a combat medic, and a close relative is in Intelligence Unit 820. They each contribute as much as they can,” Sari told a reporter.
And, to top it all, Sari Michael has a female cousin who joined the Caracal Battalion a year before her, paving the way.
As her parents wanted her to do sherut leumi, she initially served at the Defense Ministry. However, her heart yearned for significant combat service. After several months she joined the IDF, where she was assigned to the Air Force. She apologized to her parents who, luckily, were understanding of her wishes to be a combat soldier.
Asked whether she experienced any crisis following the move from convenient national service to an exhausting basic combat training, Michael was truthful in her response: “There isn’t a single combat soldier who doesn’t experience a crisis, but I received support from Captain Einat Cohen, who is responsible for the enlistment of religious girls in the army.
“She fought for my rights. She also gave me her personal cell phone number, and I knew that even if I called her at 2am, she would pick up the phone.”
When asked how she handles religious questions, she noted that there is a battalion rabbi and she could ask her father.
“There are clear orders in the army,” she continued. “One of them deals with human dignity. It doesn’t matter if you’re religious or not, Jewish or Christian or Druze; you respect your fellow man and he will respect you. My friends are considerate. They don’t listen to loud music on Shabbat, but use headphones. In my unit there are many traditional people and five religious girls.
“It’s clear that during action it’s more problematic and harder to implement, but I believe that any soldier who wants to be religious can be. It all depends on you, and I have actually become more religious in the army.”
Unlike many other soldiers who cannot wait to get home for Shabbat, Michael doesn’t mind when she is compelled to stay in.
“My mother taught me that on Shabbat a person has an elation. I enjoy elation on Shabbat in the army. There is the Kiddush, there are prayers in the synagogue, and we sit through the meals and laugh. We also have time for ourselves. Shabbat in the army is really good for the soul.”
What is even better for the soul is the awareness that religious Jewish girls, following the example of our Biblical heroines like Deborah, are actively joining in the defense of the Land of Israel.