This lecture is about boundaries between two large systems during times of nation building. It deals with the relationship between the Hebrew university and the IDF during Israel’s first decade. It was a decade of establishing and shaping the army and the education system while dealing with a tremendous wave of immigration, which exceeded in several sectors the country’s resources including housing and employment. in my lecture I will analyze the different responses of the university to the army efforts. By doing so, I will try to answer several questions regarding the ability of the university as an institution to function as an independent institution that can protect its borders from militaristic influences. The discourse between the IDF and the university revolved around four major areas in which the army tried to harness it to its needs. The first was the establishment of the ‘atuda academit’, the Israeli version of the American ROTC. The second was the discourse surrounding the opening the university medical school. The third was the discourse concerning the possibility of cooperating with the army science corps. The forth was the army attempt to adjust the university curriculum to its needs.