- Q. Dear Rabbi. I read on the global news destination, the Algemeiner published on line, of a truly difficult dilemma that sadly my family was and is involved in it, quoted in parts as follows.
At the heart of this dilemma is the hostage-prisoner exchange. Since the war’s onset, 140 Israeli hostages — men, women, and children, soldiers and peace activists — have been released by Hamas, in addition to eight others have been rescued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
In return for the 140 released hostages, Israel has freed over 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, among them convicted terrorists, murderers, and suspected extremists. The trade-offs are stark and unsettling.
Hostage deals have indeed reunited families and given hope to a grieving nation. On the other hand, the exchanges have raised fears that Israel is incentive's in this hostage-taking trades and reintroducing hardened, often more radicalized terrorists back into an already volatile region.
Critics of the deals worry that every released terrorist is a future bomb. Since my family is tragically involved in such a case I wonder, as to what is our Halacha dictate in such a case? What is Horav Miller’s Shlit’a opinion on what is correct to do?
A. Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is that as long as we are now saving the lives directly of the hostages captured, the exchange is the correct thing to do.
We trust Hashem that as we saved the lives of the captured hostages, He will also save us in the future from the plots even of the now hardened and more radicalized terrorists we released.
Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Yaakov Hirschman, Horav Dovid Pam, Horav Aharon Miller, Horav Chanoch Ehrentreu and Horav Kalman Ochs Shlit’a
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