A “Shabbat Dinner” table in Hostage Square (Tel Aviv), with empty seats, representing the hostages held captive by Hamas.
A hostage/pause in fighting agreement has been reached between Israel and the terror group, Hamas. While both sides have signed the agreement, things remain fluid. You can read the details here. Personally, I will believe it when I see it. I am approaching this with tempered hope. I’m keeping my expectations low, but I’m hoping for the best. I want to see all of the hostages returning to Israel, however too many of them will not return home alive. And they are not all being released at once. So many things can change and affect the release of future captives. The release of our hostages requires Israel to release hundreds of dangerous prisoners, many of them serving life sentences for terror/murder. Sinwar, the head of Hamas who was recently eliminated by Israel, was released from an Israeli prison in exchange for Gilad Shalit back in 2011. Despite signing the agreement, Hamas has already made it clear that “our people will expel the occupation from our land and from Jerusalem at the earliest time possible.”
Despite all of my concerns, the hostages and their families deserve this agreement. The hostages need to come home now.
For the Jewish world, there are two fundamental values that are driving this agreement.
1. Pidyon Shvuyim – Redemption of Hostages
Miamonides, the great medieval Jewish scholar taught:
The redemption of captives receives priority over sustaining the poor and providing them with clothing. [Indeed,] there is no greater mitzvah than the redemption of captives. For a captive is among those who are hungry, thirsty, and unclothed and he is in mortal peril. If someone pays no attention to his redemption, he violates the negative commandments: “Do not harden your heart or close your hand” (Deuteronomy 15:7), “Do not stand by when the blood of your neighbor is in danger” (Leviticus 19:16), and “He shall not oppress him with exhausting work in your presence (ibid. 25:53). And he has negated the observance of the positive commandments: “You shall certainly open up your hand to him” (Deuteronomy 15:8), “And your brother shall live with you” (ibid. 19:18), “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), “Save those who are taken for death” (Proverbs 24:11), and many other decrees of this nature. There is no mitzvah as great as the redemption of captives. (Mishneh Torah, Gifts to the Poor 8:10)
In the Shulchan Arukh, the most widely accepted code of Jewish law compiled in the 16th century by Rabbi Joseph Karo, states that one who delays in ransoming a captive is considered like a murderer. (Yoreh Deah 252:3)
That Talmud does teach that “captives are not redeemed for more than their value” to ensure that bad actors are not encouraged to take hostages and, thus, make the world a dangerous place. (Gittin 45a) This is the argument embraced by those in Israel opposed to the current agreement.
2. Kavod HaMet – Honoring the Dead
Honoring the dead is a fundamental Jewish value. Ensuring that those who have died receive a proper Jewish burial and their families can sit shivah, say kaddish, and mourn knowing where their loves one is are things that every Jew must fight for.
No agreement with Hamas will be a good one. But, we have one on the table – one that, to the best of Israel’s abilities, allows the Jewish State to bring both the living hostages home to begin healing with their loved one, and those hostages who have died home so they can be mourned respectfully. If this agreement moves forward, and I hope it does, the IDF’s job will become even more important and more complicated. There will be many more enemies determined to commit another 7 October. I believe that with the proper leadership, Israel can and will do this.
One final thing: by taking hostages, Hamas is waging psychological warfare, tormenting the captives, their families, Israelis, and the Jewish world – all of us. Please be aware of this. Hamas leaders are evil and love that there is now division within the Jewish world over the agreement and a crisis within the Israeli government. We must lift ourselves above all of this. We must. We owe it to the hostages and their families, we owe it Israel, we owe it ourselves to stand together to bring the captives home and keep Israel strong. Am Yisrael Chai.
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