Rabbi Liraz Zeira, Who Lost Both Legs in Syria, Seen Helping Jew Put On Tefillin

A new photo published Thursday showed Rabbi Liraz Zeira, a Chabad emissary to college students in Jerusalem, helping a man put on tefillin in the street months after he was seriously wounded in southern Syria and lost both legs.

The image, shared by the Instagram account Smiling Soldiers / Chayalim Mechaychim and photographed by Menachem Geisinsky near the Chabad House Zeira manages, showed him back on the street in uniform, standing with prosthetics and carrying a rifle as he helped an unidentified man put on tefillin. Zeira, a father of five and a major in the IDF reserves, was wounded after hundreds of days of reserve service during the war. 

“Even after losing both legs in an explosion in southern Syria while serving as a major in the IDF reserves, Rabbi Liraz Zeira refuses to surrender to darkness,” the Smiling Soldiers post said.

The post described Zeira as a devoted Chabad rabbi who continues to encourage students and spread “joy, Torah and Chassidic warmth” to those around him. It also called him “a father of five, a combat soldier and a true emissary of good.”

Zeira was wounded shortly before Yom Kippur 2025 in an explosion at an IDF position in Syria. Reports at the time described the blast as a mine or grenade explosion. In a later interview, Zeira said he had stepped on an old grenade while checking an eruv near a post held by Israeli forces.

He said soldiers at the scene acted quickly after the blast. “They put two tourniquets on my legs and truly saved my life,” Zeira recalled. “In two minutes and 20 seconds, they managed to save me.”

Zeira was initially treated at Rambam Hospital in Haifa and later transferred to Shamir Medical Center for continued treatment and rehabilitation. Throughout the process, reports said, he remained connected to religious life and to the Chabad mission he had led before his injury.

In an interview after the injury, Zeira said the experience had given him a renewed sense of purpose.

“As a Chabad Chassid, the insight that reality is not necessarily what you see, but how you choose to see it, I felt that I have a new mission in life,” he said.

For Zeira, that mission has now returned to the street. Months after the blast, the new photo showed him once again helping Jews put on tefillin in Jerusalem, continuing the public outreach work he carried before and after his military service.