Ezra Yachin was born only a few meters away from where he delivers his speech at the Etzel 1948 Museum on the border between Tel Aviv and Jaffa’s seashore. His family moved to Jerusalem soon after he was born in 1928.

At 96, he is the oldest reserve soldier in the IDF, giving about five motivational speeches a week to battalions of soldiers, as well as to students throughout Israel.

His life’s motto comes from Hatikvah: “To be a free people in our own land.”

Yachin began his military career at 15, fighting in Israel’s underground LECHI (Freedom Fighters for Israel) against the British. When Israel went to war in 1948, LECHI joined with the Irgun and Haganah to become the IDF, where Yachin served as well. LECHI’s motto was “Death to the enemy, freedom for the homeland!”

Yachin had three boys and a girl with his late wife Chaya. At age 70, he remarried his second wife, Chana. He has 13 grandchildren and to date, 10 great-grandchildren.

Today, the grandson of his late brother, who was also with him in LECHI, is among the troops he’s lecturing to.

“The most important thing,” Yachin said, “is to be a Jewish soldier for the Jewish nation. The first Jewish soldier was Avraham Aveinu, who went to war to rescue his nephew, Lot. Tzahal is our pride.” Yachin lost his vision in his right eye in The War of Independence, when a shell exploded near his head.

Yachin is soft-spoken, genteel and humble, but when he takes to the podium, he is a powerhouse, speaking with the energy and passion of someone many decades his junior. He speaks of the horrors of war, of its heroes and of the many miracles he witnessed, inspiring today’s soldiers with the stories of those who gave their lives for the country. Yachin himself says that he escaped death many times, sometimes many times in one day.

He tells the horrific story of his best friend, Alexander Rubowitz, who was tortured to death by the SAS (Special Air Service) of the British Army when he was only 16 years old. Major Roy Farran admitted to killing him, but was acquitted.

He speaks of three soldiers singing Hatikvah before they were hanged by the British.

Yachin speaks of the strength that Israel would have if every Jew in the world lived here. “What are all the Jews doing in America and Europe?” asks the nonagenarian.

“We have so much abundance,” he said. “Such a beautiful country, you can choose what climate you want to live in; nothing is lacking here. Why don’t they come? It contradicts our Torah.”

Yachin’s nickname in the underground was Elnakam, which means “God avenges.”

“Everything was taken from the survivors of Auschwitz aside from their Jewish heart.” He tells of the Jewish orphans of the Holocaust in an orphanage, calling out to the soldiers in Jerusalem, “Be successful.”

“I continue to fight in the Israeli army,” he said. Only today his weapons are his words of inspiration and motivation. “If we still have an enemy, I have to be a fighter. Our enemies have many podiums: the U.N., UNESCO…

“We have to wipe out Amalek and settle the entire country.” He admires the hilltop youth who go and settle any place in Israel that is not inhabited. “Wherever there are no Jews (in Israel) there are murderers of Jews.”

Yachin, who believes that the prophecies of the Neviim are coming true before our eyes, peppers his speech with quotes from the Bible. “On Simchat Torah, when October 7 happened, in the reading Zot Habracha, Moshe Rabbeinu blesses the people saying, ‘Fortunate are you, O Israel: Who is like you! O people delivered by Hashem, the Shield of your help, Who is the sword of your grandeur; your foes will try to deceive you, but you will trample their haughty ones.’”

When the war broke out, he distributed 10,000 copies of the seven books he’s written to encourage the soldiers.

Yachin said that his longevity and energy are a gift from God. “I love every Jew. Whether he’s left wing or right wing, I love him. I mostly love the children. When I look at them, I know the nation has a future.”

Last Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Yachin lit a torch at the ceremony in Jerusalem. “We have to transfer the torch to the next generation, to use it to burn our enemies and to light the Geula, our redemption.”

Rosally Saltsman is a freelance writer, originally from Montreal, who lives in Israel. Come join her!