Corporal Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas on the border of the Gaza strip on June 25, 2006, 979 days ago. His father, Noam Shalit has met on behalf of his son with heads of State who have visited in Israel and abroad. Gilad has been kept in isolation and allowed to received only one of many letters sent to him, through the intervention of French President Nicholai Sarkozi. Shalit has not been allowed visits by the International Red Cross as required by the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war. In the meanwhile his 23" and 24" birthdays have passed while incarcerated.
There are contrasting views as to the extent that we must go to ransom prisoners. According to Maimonides , there are many mitzvot that we must fulfill in our relationship with our fellows: we must feed the hungry and thirsty, clothe the naked, the save those who are in danger of death. The Rambam states:“There is no precept greater than the redemption of captives, since a captive falls into all these categories of hungry and thirsty and naked and danger of death. Those who close their eyes to redeeming him transgress the command‘do not stand idly beside the blood of your fellow’ and nullify the precept‘love your fellow as yourself”(Lev. 19:18). Yosef Caro emphasized the urgency of release. “Every moment one puts off redeeming captives, where it is possible to do so sooner, is like shedding blood.”(Shulhan Arukh Y.D. 2) If redeeming captives is so vital a precept, it would seem to be our duty to do so at any cost. Yet, the Mishnah holds that“captives should not be ransomed for more than their value, as a precaution for the general good.”(Gittin 4:6)
How do we determine the value of a human being? It may be suggested that one check the price at a slave market. This would appear doubtful in the Jewish tradition. More likely our sages would rely on the passage from the Book of Psalms (Ps. 8:8)“What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him.”
Meir of Rothenberg, who was seventy-one years old, refused to allow the transaction for himself, proclaiming that the principal:“Not to redeem captives for more than their value” applied to himself. As a result, he languished in prison for the last seven years of his life. The sixteenth century Polish Rabbi Solomon Luria , confirms the details of this case as follows:“I have heard that the Maharam of Rothenburg , zichrono I”’vracha, was held in the fortress of Ensisheim in the Upper Alsace for a number of years. The prince demanded a large sum from the communities