“There is a law, and it says: ‘If someone comes to kill you — kill him first.’ The most important part. Therefore, defending your country is a commandment of God. There is such a commandment: ‘Do not cross the border.’ It is written in the Torah, in the Bible, right? Therefore, those who came here grossly violated this commandment. And those who defend — this is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, these are the hands of God in Ukraine. And they fulfill the commandment: ‘Do not kill, by destroying the enemy’, – Yakov Sinyakov.
Video of the channel “Details“ with Igor Sinyakov (also known as Rabbi Yakov) does not sound like an ‘interview about religion’. Rather, it sounds like a conversation on the front line, where a person has no extra words, but has a habit of calling things directly. He talks about war as maximum chaos, about the army as order, about why neutrality in such times is not just a convenient pose, but a moral trap, and why memory is not a burden, but a tool for the future.
Rabbi Yakov is the first officially recognized Orthodox Jewish chaplain in the history of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the video, his path is described briefly and clearly: after February 24, 2022, he and his wife began helping refugees in Dnipro, then the volunteer work gradually shifted to the military — trips along the front line, meetings with units in different directions. In 2025, at the invitation of the commander, Brigadier General Yevhen Lasiychuk, Yakov joined the army and headed the chaplain service of the 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces. This is an important detail: he does not ‘come sometimes’, he is integrated into the structure, constantly with people, and this explains the tone of the interview — without a tourist’s view of the war.
It is important to clarify: in this article, we took only the most noticeable theses and several key stories from the conversation — essentially a summary, not a full transmission of intonation and meaning. The full interview is much broader, deeper, and in places stronger precisely due to the live details, pauses, reactions of the interlocutors, and how Rabbi Yakov unfolds thoughts step by step. If the topic is close to you — be sure to watch the video in full: it gives a completely different sense of the reality of the front and how people hold on where ‘it’s a mess’ becomes a daily norm.
Who is Rabbi Yakov and why do not only believers listen to him
He himself constantly returns the conversation to the simple meaning of the word ‘rabbi’. It is not only a ‘servant’, it is a ‘teacher’. Not the one who comes to ‘perform rituals’, but the one who explains, holds the frame, helps a person not to fall apart at the moment when everything around is falling apart.
And here it is important: a chaplain on the front for many is not a ‘religious option’, but a human function. Someone believes, someone does not, someone is Orthodox, someone is Catholic, someone has not decided at all. But when there is a person nearby who knows how to listen, does not pressure, does not preach, but gives you the opportunity to speak out and cling to meaning — the confession fades into the background.
Rabbi Yakov seems to understand this better than many: he calmly says that God is one, Ukraine is one, and that the main ‘obstacles’ between people often arise not at the level of faith, but in the head — from wrong labels, fear, fatigue, and the habit of dividing the world into ‘ours’ and ‘others’.
‘The main thing is logistics and communication’: war without romance
One of the first thoughts in the conversation sounds like a professional habit: in the army, the main thing is logistics and communication. Not slogans, not beautiful texts, not ‘will to victory’ as an abstraction. But communication that works. The rear that keeps up. Delivery that arrives on time. Because if this is not there — heroism becomes a way to close gaps, and the gaps are endless.
From here grows his key thesis: war is maximum chaos. To withstand maximum chaos, maximum order is needed. And he sees this order in the army as the foundation of the state. Harshly, almost rudely: no army — no state. And even if all professions are important, the army is the basis on which all other life stands.
‘You need to choose a position’: about neutrality, corruption, and fatigue
The most conflicting piece of the interview is about choosing a position. Rabbi Yakov says what many do not want to hear, especially in peaceful cities or outside the country: neutrality in such times is an attempt to hide from responsibility. He quotes a famous phrase that the hottest circles of hell are ‘prepared’ for those who maintained neutrality in troubled times, and derives from this a practical advice: choosing a position is not only moral, it is psychologically easier. At least you understand who you are and where you stand.
Next is the topic of corruption. And here he specifically knocks out the usual justification for apathy. Yes, there is corruption. But what now — give up? His logic is simple and even annoying in its straightforwardness: do not be a corrupt person yourself. Do not justify your inaction by the fact that someone ‘there’ is stealing. This does not cancel the systemic problem, but returns personal responsibility and the ability to act to a person.
For readers of NANews – news of Israel this sounds especially acute: many Israelis of Ukrainian origin live between two realities — the war in Ukraine and their life in Israel. And the most dangerous emotion here is ‘I decide nothing, it does not depend on me’. In the interview, there is a constant reverse signal: it depends. Even if not on the scale of the state — on the scale of your position, help, choice, words, behavior.
‘I come to them for energy’: who helps whom on the front
There is a moment where he breaks the stereotype of a chaplain as a person who ‘brings morality’. He admits: at first, he thought he was coming to the military ‘to give them something’ — words, instructions, support. And then he realized that he was coming… to receive. To receive experience, energy, inspiration from people who live in conditions where fear is not a theory, but a daily reality.
He describes the fighters as ‘real heroes’ without gloss: they can be rude, tired, sometimes broken, but they hold on to the idea, do their job, and this fills him. In this honesty, there is an important detail: he does not play the role of a ‘saint’, he shows himself as a person who is also fueled by someone else’s strength.
Israel as an example: memory is not a punishment, but strength
In the interview, there is a line that is almost inevitable for the audience in Israel: the host talks about the ‘genetic memory’ of the Jewish people, about the habit of living in a state of war, about how holidays and traditions preserve the memory of enemies and trials of millennia ago.
Rabbi Yakov responds not with pathos, but with the thought of memory as a tool. Israel, in his words, is strong because it remembers: history, language, painful moments. And that is why the current Ukrainian experience cannot be ‘forgotten for the sake of peace’. It needs to be passed on to the next generations — not to cultivate hatred, but to build strong statehood on this experience.
This is an important turn: memory not as a constant wound, but as the foundation of the future.
‘Where is God in war?’ — and why he does not give a sweet answer
One of the heaviest questions of the interview is asked in direct words: if God exists, where is he in war? Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, executions of prisoners on camera. This is a question that kills any beautiful sermons.
Rabbi Yakov answers in an unexpectedly ‘earthly’ way. He does not try to explain the horror with a ‘higher plan’. He shifts the responsibility to people: the choice to attack, to come to kill, to cross the border — was made by people, not God. The world is ‘given into our hands’, and in this sense, a person is responsible for what he does with his freedom.
And then he adds an important thought: when a person chooses the right position and does what he must, help comes to him. Not as magic, but as a life effect of the right choice and inner composure.
The boundary between defender and killer: commandments and the right to defense
The host asks about the moral boundary of the first shot: how to explain to a recruit where the ‘defender’ ends and the ‘killer’ begins?
He answers through the ten commandments and the idea of two ‘tablets’: one about a person’s relationship with God, the other about a person’s relationship with a person. And in this context, ‘do not kill’ sounds like a principle: it would be ideal if no one killed anyone. But within the real world, there is a law of defense: if someone comes to kill you — stop him.
He formulates it as directly as possible: defending your country is not a ‘sin’, but a duty in the logic of defense. And at the same time, he emphasizes: invasion is a violation of the border, a violation of the basic prohibition ‘do not cross the line’.
Hatred and prisoners: how not to become the one you are fighting against
One of the most delicate moments is the conversation about hatred. The host’s question is very precise: hatred does not destroy the enemy, it destroys you and strengthens evil. What to do with this?
Rabbi Yakov tells that he has seen prisoners. And he says something that many in war may find unbearable: even in the enemy, he sees a ‘divine soul’. At the same time, he does not romanticize and does not ‘whitewash’: if a person has committed a crime punishable by death, he must be punished. But the moral boundary ‘do not mock’ must still exist. This is not about softness, but about preserving humanity in oneself.
Stories from the front: wounded, laughter on the edge, and ‘slowing down time’
The interview contains many specific episodes. They do not look like fiction — precisely because they sound uneven, with everyday details.
He talks about a fighter who was wounded in the arm and leg, left alone in the cold, bandaged his wounds himself for several days, and then walked for eight hours to the exit. And then he was surprised himself: ‘I felt like I could move mountains’. This is a story not about a ‘superman’, but about how the body sometimes pulls a person beyond the edge of the possible.
He tells about another episode: an officer was wounded, he was losing consciousness, coming to and asking for a cigarette. And next to him, a person who fills out documents is already tired of rewriting reports: ‘he dies, then revives’. And they laugh at this. Funny? No. This is a protective mechanism of the psyche, which cannot live only in horror.
There is also a personal episode: an explosion nearby, the whistle of shrapnel, bricks flying, and suddenly there is a feeling of ‘slowing down time’. He runs and thinks some almost funny thought — ‘if I fall, I’ll be dirty’. Then he takes out his phone and starts filming the ‘mushroom’ of the explosion. This is how the brain works in an extreme situation: the everyday and the deadly mix.
Suicides and despair: what he does when a person ‘goes there’
The interview also raises the heaviest topic — suicides among the military, signs of a dangerous state, what to do if a person starts talking about it.
Rabbi Yakov speaks practically: if a person voices such thoughts — it is already an alarm. And he tells a case when he was already leaving, but a conversation with a fighter suddenly fell into hatred for everyone — society, commanders, the world. He stopped, returned, let the person speak out, and then led him to support — to his daughter. Not ‘be ashamed’, not ‘pull yourself together’, but a simple question: what will happen to the child if you do what you are talking about?
This is an important principle of chaplain work: not to break a person with morality, but to find a thread of meaning that he himself can hold on to.
After the war: why he does not believe in mass ‘where were you’
There is another topic that scares society in advance: the gap between those who fought and those who did not. Will there be aggression later?
Rabbi Yakov confidently says: there will be no mass aggression. The main problem will be with the veterans themselves — inside, in adaptation, in trauma, in how to return to normal life. He recalls the example of Vietnam and says that society needs not to be afraid of the military, but to turn to them: respect, help in integration, normal attitude without labels.
He adds another thought, important for ‘peaceful’: do not rush to condemn — neither others nor yourself. Fear is normal. Justifying yourself is sometimes also part of the path. And even if you do not fight, you can be useful in another form. He gives an example of friends abroad who help the army and thus close the internal need ‘to be part’.
Everyday life and honesty: kashrut, lard, and a very human war
At the end of the interview, there is a piece that unexpectedly makes it as lively as possible: the everyday life of an Orthodox Jew in the army. There are no kosher rations — he carries food with him, a pot, a frying pan. The guys nearby cook solyanka, cut lard, the smell drives you crazy — but you can’t. He jokes, they joke. And in these jokes, an important thing is visible: war does not cancel differences, but can teach to respect differences without aggression.
He also talks about a gift — a book of Psalms of King David with text in Hebrew and an official Ukrainian translation, which is given to the military, and which he presented to various Ukrainian leaders. This is also a detail: he not only ‘talks about faith’, he does specific things that become a symbol of support.
‘A miracle is when you have done everything you could’
The final meaning of the interview is unexpectedly not religious and not military. He talks about a miracle as a result of action. He recalls the story of crossing the sea: the sea parted not when people stood and asked, but when a person went far enough, almost to the limit.
A miracle, in his logic, is the end of a process where you have done everything possible. And then he very harshly adds: if the country does not change, if corruption remains, if people maintain neutrality, if ‘I don’t care’ — it means we have not yet reached the point where the sea should part.
What this video gives to the viewer in Israel
For the Israeli audience, especially for Israelis of Ukrainian origin, the interview hooks for several reasons.
Firstly, it constantly returns to the theme of memory and resilience — the very one on which Israel has built its security and statehood for decades.
Secondly, it shows the war not as a television background, but as human mechanics: fear, laughter, anger, faith, everyday details that keep the psyche afloat.
Thirdly, it asks an uncomfortable question: where is your position? Are you inside the events or are you trying to wait it out until ‘it passes by itself’?
And finally — it reminds that religion in war can be not a set of answers, but a way to keep a person from turning into emptiness.
Video
Video ““This is a MESS” revelations of a JEWISH CHAPLAIN from just the FRONT” February 19, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRGKkKVovOg
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