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This a story of gay fiction for a mature audience. It contains consenting sex between men. If this offends you, leave or is illegal where you live, leave now. If you enjoy the stories on the site, donate to Nifty to keep the site going.
Not that Kosher
Conscription in South Africa was established in 1967 and abolished in 1994. At its peak, conscription in South Africa consisted of two years of mandatory military service, followed by camps at intervals. Under apartheid, the call-up applied to all white men after completing their schooling or further studies.
I grew up in the Northern Suburbs of Joburg and attended an orthodox Jewish school. I left medical school after completing three years and was conscripted. I was assigned to do national service at the South African Medical Training Centre at Klipdrift.
I'm 5' 9" and have black hair, and brown eyes, and wear spectacle. My brown uniform was always clean and neat, and they say I looked like a real soldier. After completing basic training, I volunteered to stay at the training camp and work in the sick bay as a medic. It was a small sickbay staffed by a national service doctor, a female Captain (nursing sister), and four national servicemen. The sick bay got very busy when there were people in the camp. If there were any serious cases, we would refer to the sick bay in Potchefstroom.
I was well-liked and kept the sick bay looking good. I took full ownership and worked closely with the doctor and sister to make sure that our stock levels were good. I was happy, I was able to take the Sabbath off and the camp had a kosher kitchen, a Rabbi visited us every two weeks. The commanding officer went out of his way to make sure Jewish conscripts were looked after.
I prayed every day and was one of the few Jewish conscripts who wore a kippah. I was very religious at the time but I was dealing with my own inner turmoil. Let me put it another way: I liked men in an intimate way. I knew the seemingly clear biblical denunciations of homosexual sex, as well as many of the rabbinic commentaries and legal codes based on those verses. In the early 1980s there were clear limits to how far Orthodox Judaism, with its commitment to traditional understandings of Jewish law, could move on the subject.
There were one or two synagogues that gave more support to Orthodox Jews experiencing homosexual desires and who were more compassionate, but they never sanctioned gay relationships. However, the rabbis in my own synagogue were not at all open, and nor was my family.
As far as I can remember I was always attracted to boys, but I couldn't speak about it, not even to the young rabbi that prepared me for my Bar Mitzvah. I was 14 when I kissed a boy for the first time. It was at a youth camp and we were alone in a room. We had known each other since grade school, and I was attracted to him. We also gave each other blowjobs. He had some experience and led the way. The sad thing is that I never got to do anything with David again. I lived with a lot of guilt after that encounter and tried to read a lot about homosexuality, we didn't have the internet in those days and finding information wasn't easy.
I was glad to get to university. My world opened, I escaped from my very bounded orthodox world and met so many different people from so many different backgrounds. I was on overdrive. I had hardly had any contact before then with Christians, Muslims or people from other faiths or Black people. The world was so big, and my politics were challenged as well as my beliefs. It was fantastic. In medical school, I was introduced to evolution by the great Professor Philip Tobias, and I recognised more and more the limits of the world I had grown up in.
At university, I met some reformed Jews who also challenged me to think differently, and I became good friends with Aaron. I had a Sabbath meal with his family and spent the night at their house, where he extended my limited sex education. I was slowly beginning to feel more comfortable with who I was and my desires. But there was no way that I could even think of speaking to anyone in my community or family. I won't go into detail now, but my parents stopped paying for my studies and I had to go to the army.
I met Nathan in the hullaballoo of the new conscripts reporting for their basic training. There was a table where the Jewish recruits signed in and were given the regulations and dining arrangements. He was about six feet tall, ginger, had blue eyes, an engaging smile, and oozed confidence. You couldn't miss him; I think my heart skipped a beat that day. However, he looked a lot different after a military haircut! I told him where to find me and offered help if he ever needed it.
I saw Nathan regularly in the kosher dining area, and even though non-commissioned officers didn't normally mix with privates, the Jewish community on the base was a lot less formal. Nathan had attended a public school and wasn't brought up in an observant home. He did have a Bar mitzvah and he had some grounding in the faith. I invited him to prayers, but he never joined us.
I was on duty in the sick bay one night when Nathan was brought in by some friends from his platoon. They had been playing `chicken' with a knife, and the knife had pierced Nathan's thigh by accident. One of the guys had removed it, but there was a lot of bleeding. They had applied pressure, and the bleeding had slowed down. I couldn't see any foreign bodies in the wound, so I used an antiseptic solution to clean it. It started to bleed again, and I had to apply pressure and use an ice pack before I stitched the wound. Nathan was wearing shorts and I noticed that he had an erection.
I admitted him and elevated his leg on some pillows. Somehow, he sensed my desire, and when I brought him some pain pills, he sat up and kissed me. I returned the kiss. I had an erection and leaned in and rubbed my hand over his naked chest. He reached out and grabbed my hard cock. I locked the door and removed my clothes and lay next to Nathan where I gently wanked him, careful not to disturb his wound. I was thrilled to be so close to him and to feel the warmth of his body, at that moment my desire was fulfilled. We both came at the same time and went down on him and licked off the cum.
We met a few more times after that night. Nathan was always very confident and brought a `normality' to our clandestine relationship, particularly at a time when homosexuality was seen as an aberration. I began to feel less abnormal in a conservative Calvinistic world – not to mention my former orthodox Jewish world.
I returned to medical school after finishing military service.
I later immigrated, and work as a psychiatrist in Sydney and treat many orthodox Jews, but I no longer wear a kippah!
The early eighties in the army seem so long ago, or as Abba sang:
"Where are those happy days? They seem so hard to find
I try to reach for you, but you have closed your mind
Whatever happened to our love? I wish I understood
It used to be so nice, it used to be so good."