Basic training

The days are long and tiring, and you will have to be active most of the day: keeping to schedules, formations, guard duty, cleaning and endless instructions.

Sleep: under a General Staff order, every soldier is entitled each day to “orderly sleep” — at least seven hours, in one stretch, at night between 22:00 and 6:00, in proper conditions. Departing from this is allowed only for the reasons listed in the order, and in a declared state of emergency these rules may not apply in full.

• Lessons — weapons and marksmanship, first aid, IDF values; physical training with fitness instructors, and close-combat training for self-defence.
• The weapon — you receive it in the first days, and until you shoot with it at the range it stays with you all the time. Leaving a weapon unattended is a serious offence.
• The range — the day starts early: you load the equipment and go out to the field, set up the range, receive safety instructions and fire several firing drills. They qualify you to fire the weapon, walk around the base with it and stand guard. A shooting score is required for the training; whoever got a low score repeats the drill.
• Guard duty — before guard duty you go through lessons and briefings. There is also a “guard procedure”: a day devoted entirely to protecting the camp.
• Kitchen duty and cleaning — part of the routine.
• ט"ש (“before sleep”) — time before lights-out to get organised, shower and use the phone. It is best to go to sleep when it ends, so as not to wake up tired.

The wake-up time, the number of field weeks and the order of the range sessions are not specified by the latest sources.

In basic training everyone sleeps on the base, even those who live nearby.

“Closing Shabbat” means staying to sleep on the base over the weekend. In basic training this is part of the training: staying on the base is one of its central contents. How many Shabbats you close depends on the rifleman level. A 2016 article on the conscripts' site gives an example: in basic training 02 you usually close one or two Shabbats. For the other levels the sources give no number. Closing Shabbat can also be a punishment for a disciplinary offence or for appearance and dress.

On Shabbat, when there is no state of emergency, the base follows the “Shabbat procedure”: only what is essential takes place — kitchen duty and guard duty; apart from guard duty and meals you have no obligations. Every camp has a rabbi and a synagogue, and on Friday evening a festive meal with kiddush for everyone present. IDF kitchens are kosher. Private activity is allowed as long as it does not hurt the feelings of Shabbat observers — music, for example, with headphones.

You are released to the Shabbat routine at least an hour before Shabbat comes in — that is the IDF site's answer to a soldier on a closed base.

According to articles on the conscripts' site from 2022: about a week before enlistment you get a message saying whether you go home for the first Shabbat — and most recruits do; and you usually go home on Friday morning, unless you are closing Shabbat that week.

On the first weekend you go home, you can finish shopping for whatever is missing. Sick over the weekend? You notify your personal commander and go to the nearest “Doctor's Visit” (ביקור רופא) clinic.

Leave: under the IDF's leave order, in initial training units — basic training or basic qualification training — the annual “regila” leave, at least five consecutive days (not counting Fridays, Saturdays and holidays), is taken on the dates fixed in the unit's schedule; additional leave needs the commander's approval. On the night before leaving the base on leave, a soldier is entitled to a proper night's sleep.

Parents' visits to basic-training and training bases follow the instructions of the Personnel Directorate (Aka) — that is what the IDF's visits order sets. Whether and when you can visit — ask the unit.

If you close Shabbat, can your parents come to visit? According to a 2022 article on the conscripts' site, in basic training 02 most likely not in most cases, because the training is relatively short; some bases with longer training allow it.

Phone: in basic training you cannot plug in electrical devices, so it is better not to bring them — except a phone charger, which is checked. There is little free time: ט"ש before sleep and a few more short breaks during the day. An article for parents on the conscripts' site, 2022: during basic training the mobile phone is used only in ט"ש, which usually lasts about 45 minutes — so it is worth keeping your phone on and being available for a call in the evening. Other rules are set by the base: under a General Staff order, a unit commander may forbid carrying a personal phone during military activities for information security, and a standing instruction is set in the base routine order and made known to all its soldiers.

ט"ש under the orders: every soldier is entitled to a “pre-sleep” hour, free to get ready for sleep — change clothes, shower. Only in exceptional cases may a commander of at least lieutenant-colonel rank shorten it, and even then to no less than half an hour.

Photography: under a General Staff order, you may not photograph a military installation without a photography permit, and doing so may also be an offence under the Penal Law. Official ceremonies and course graduation ceremonies open to the general public are outside the ban — unless a special instruction has been issued.

The terms-of-service NCO (מש"קית ת"ש) — you meet her in the first days, in a short interview. You turn to her and to your personal commanders to ask for help with terms of service.

• Keeping to schedules comes before everything: even if you have not finished a task, you report at the place and time set.
• You carry out orders and do not argue — as long as a manifestly illegal order has not been given.
• You address commanders by their role, not by name, and keep your distance — a professional relationship only: “Attention, commander” (הקשב המפקד), not “bro” and not “man”.
• In basic training and in any training before regular service, you salute every officer.
• If you made a mistake, you admit it at once.
• There is no privacy: you sleep, eat and shower with people you have not known.
• “Adequate integration” (שילוב ראוי) — the order that regulates, among other things, appearance and dress, placement and training, and avoiding hurting the feelings of believers. Under it, you may not touch or hug a soldier of the other sex as long as one of you is in uniform.
• Do not post photos of yourself in uniform on social networks: they reveal your role, and a photo taken at the base sometimes catches classified details — an information-security offence.

Some of the rules apply only in the training before regular service, and some throughout the whole service.

In basic training you are commanded by a command staff and a professional staff, whose role is to accompany you during the training.

• Squad commander (מ"כ) — the direct and first commander you will get to know. Teaches weapons, first aid and IDF values, and you can turn to him about anything, personal or professional.
• Sergeant (סמל/ת) — deputy platoon commander: logistics and discipline. You meet the sergeant when you are received at the base and get your equipment.
• Platoon commander (מ"מ) — an officer. Gives platoon lessons and safety briefings, and swears you in to the IDF at the swearing-in ceremony.
• Company commander (מ"פ) — plans, runs and carries out the basic training, mostly behind the scenes.
• Company sergeant major (רס"פ) — the administrative and logistics side of the company: the stock of equipment and food, and the routine and discipline procedures.
• Terms-of-service NCO (מש"קית ת"ש) — terms of service: a short interview in the first days, and requests for help.
• Company medic (חופ"ל) — first-line care: medication, examinations, dressings; when needed, refers you to the unit doctor.
• Physical-training instructor (מדא"ג) — physical fitness and combat fitness training.

At the end of basic training comes the swearing-in ceremony: the platoon commander swears you in to the IDF.

The swearing-in of the Nahal fighters of the November 2025 intake was held in the presence of the brigade's commanders, the training staff and the fighters' families.

What comes after depends on the track. Whoever enlisted for the all-IDF basic training gets a role at its end; in other roles — for example casualty-affairs NCOs — you continue to the role's course; fighters — from level 05 up — go on to advanced training.

Combat units have their own customs for the end of the training, for example: in Nahal the training ends with a march of 40 km, from eight in the evening until sunrise, and on the last kilometre the fighters' relatives join the march; in the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps — as a fighter told it in a 2025 article — they stood in a circle, and each commander chose someone and gave them the beret; in Golani the beret you receive at the end of the training is brown.