On Monday night, Dec. 11, before the candle lighting ceremony at a Chanukah event for families at my son Elie’s base near Shilo in the Shomron, the battalion commander surprised Elie by promoting him to major. Though typically three years need to elapse after one’s promotion to captain, and not even a year has gone by since Elie’s promotion, the commander explained that he was able to push Elie through because of the demands of the war. So there was a (promotion) ceremony before the (candle lighting) ceremony, with Elie’s wife Hadar switching out Elie’s right epaulet and the battalion commander his left.

Yes, for the 95 soldiers under Elie, both their company and battalion commanders wear kippot, an occurrence not so unusual these days as the percentage of religious officers is relatively high. With this promotion, Elie leaves the lower echelon of officers who wear bars on their epaulets, for a higher one signified by fig leaves — referred to as “falafels” in Israeli culture.