Selected Reform Responsa 151

THE HOSTAGES 1987

QUESTION: What guidance does Jewish legal tradition give us in handling situations like the recent one in which an airplane containing American citizens was hijacked and the travelers were held as hostages by their Shiite Moslem captors?(Asked by Rabbi Daniel Syme, New York .)

ANSWER: The many-sided effort made by the United States government to free these hostages has its analogy in Jewish experience and Jewish law. Actually, the Jewish experience is far more extensive than that of any modem government whose citizens have been held hostage. In the Jewish past, especially in the Middle Ages, large numbers of Jews (numbered into the thousands) were captured and held hostage. A description of the extent of this bitter Jewish experience may be found in Abraham 's Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, pp. 96 and 336.

Since the taking of hostages was so widespread an experience, it is obvious that the Jewish legal literature had considerable material on this subject. Since the taking of Jews as hostages was so widespread an experience, it is obvious that the Jewish legal literature had considerable material on the subject.

The first statement was by Rabbi Jochanan in the Talmud (B.B.B. 8b). He comments on the following verse in Jeremiah 15:2: “Those who are for death will have death; those for the sword will have the sword; and those for captivity will have captivity.” Rabbi Jochanan says that these three tragedies are given in the order of ascending severity; that is to say, that captivity(being held hostage) is a greater tragedy even than war and death itself.