“There is a law that says: ‘If someone comes to kill you — rise and strike first.’ That is the essential principle. Defending your country is therefore a commandment of God. There is also another commandment — do not cross another’s boundary. It is written in the Torah, in the Bible. Those who invaded violated that commandment. And those who defend Ukraine today — the soldiers of the Armed Forces — are, in this sense, the hands of God carrying out the commandment: not murder, but the destruction of an aggressor.” — Rabbi Yakov Sinyakov

“There is a law that says: ‘If someone comes to kill you — rise and strike first.’ That is the essential principle. Defending your country is therefore a commandment of God. There is also another commandment — do not cross another’s boundary. It is written in the Torah, in the Bible. Those who invaded violated that commandment. And those who defend Ukraine today — the soldiers of the Armed Forces — are, in this sense, the hands of God carrying out the commandment: not murder, but the destruction of an aggressor.” — Rabbi Yakov Sinyakov

Who Rabbi Yakov Is — and Why People Listen to Him Beyond Religion

The video interview released by the Ukrainian channel Podrobytsi does not sound like a discussion about religion. It feels closer to a frontline conversation — stripped of rhetoric, without theatrical heroism, spoken by someone accustomed to calling things by their real names.

Rabbi Yakov Sinyakov became the first officially recognized Orthodox Jewish chaplain in the history of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. His path into the military began shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. Together with his wife, he initially helped refugees in Dnipro. Gradually, volunteer work turned into constant travel along frontline regions, meeting units deployed across different directions of the war.

In 2025, at the invitation of Brigadier General Yevhen Lasiychuk, he formally joined the military and became head of the chaplaincy service of the 7th Air Assault Corps. This detail matters: he is not an occasional visitor. He is embedded within the military structure, living alongside soldiers — which explains the tone of the interview. There is no outsider’s perspective on war here.

Rabbi Yakov repeatedly returns to the original meaning of the word rabbi: not merely a religious official, but a teacher — someone who helps people hold themselves together when everything around them begins to collapse.

On the front line, a chaplain often becomes less a religious figure and more a human necessity. Soldiers come from different backgrounds — believers, atheists, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, or people unsure of faith altogether. Yet when someone listens without judgment and helps restore meaning, denominational differences quickly........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)