The Most Painful Moral Dillema: Trading Hostages For Terrorists - OUR RESPONSIBILITY

one of the most painful difficult moral and ethical dilemmas that we've encountered is is it worthwhile to trade terrorists for hostages is it worthwhile to save the lives of a few of our Jewish hostages in exchange for hundreds of terrorists on the one hand when you see the emotional reunion of our hostages with their families whose heart doesn't melt when they see young men and women h mes older people after over 480 days of being in isolation in terrible conditions brutalized tormented humiliated and now being reunited with their family members who did they think they would ever see their family again and your heart cannot help but melt who who doesn't shed tears of joy seeing the joyous reunion of amilies with their loved ones but on the other hand is it really worthwhile to exchange hundreds of terrorists each one of them is capable of wreaking such Devastation and Havoc what a what a terrible predicament to be in what does the say about this what is the correct thing to do it's such a a terrible situation to be in it's worthwhile to know that rabya and one of his Chas did express halik view that it would be worthwhile for the following ldus and that's not the purpose of this particular message but Rad's Viewpoint was that when it comes to we have to look at the here and the now and if we have the the opportunity to save Jewish lives now yes at the expense of endangering in the future we have to give Primacy to the Nar made the following calculation we know the is when it comes to the prohibition of Ni ham making an autopsy so the is if you make an autopsy on Ru you'd be allowed to to save the life of shim right now but if it's to save lives in the future you would not be allowed to conduct an autopsy from here we see that the laws ofers are governed by what could be accomplished now not in the future so too conversely R argued that when it comes to saving life or risking life if you could save a life now at the expense of risking someone's life in the future if would be proper to save the life now whether he was talking about giving up so many terrorist to save only a few Jews that's a question for a different occasion but what a terrible predicament to be in and how should we view such a thing what could we possibly do what should our perspective do so I just want to share with you a thought this is a thought I heard from Ras on uh a different occasion for a different situation but there's USI in shumis anderic sh in order to understand the you have to know a few other introductory number one the is are you allowed to give up a Jew in order to save the whole city in other words let's say a city is being uh sieged and the Gentiles surrounding the city say okay give us one of you that we're going to kill otherwise we kill all of you are you allowed to give and deliver One Life To Save many others is no you can't do it however what if the they the enemy identifies they say give us Ruan if you give us ruane we won't kill out the city otherwise we kill out the whole city then indeed you're allowed to give up One Life to save the rest of the city where they where the enemy identifies someone and the Yami discusses whether does that person have to already be liable to a death penalty or even if not thei now continues Yami tells us about an individual by the name of who was claimed by the Mal and they wanted him they wanted to kill him so he fled to lud to rishu Lei if you look they s the Gentiles surrounded the Medina and they said if you don't give us we're going to destroy the whole city so rishu went to and he persuaded him look you know either way you're going to die so you might as well give yourself up and save us the gamar tells us that Ali would be accustomed to visiting Ru Le and he stopped visiting him so rishu Le didn't understand why elu was giving him a hard time why El was upset with him so rishu Lei fasted and and Al said the reason why I don't reveal myself to you anymore is because you gave over so asked that's the what am I supposed to do what's the alternative we should all die is that better so to whicho responded is this the righteous thing to do so the question is what wasi saying is this the righteous thing to do what it's more righteous for everybody to die is the alternative preferable kki in his understanding of the isami in his commentary to the isami explains that yes indeed the is that you're allowed to give up that person's life to save everybody else but rishu didn't have to be the one to do it he should have done it through someone else interestingly and amazingly the K has a different take on this kedin Sim amazingly understands the K asks that what what was the tin on R what was the problem that this is not m why was upset with Rua says what was telling rishu ISU would never be mmin Hashem would never put rishu Lei in such a situation if rishu Lei was on the proper madrea and if such a thing happened to him he should have daved that Hashem saved him from this predicament and if he would have daved then he definitely would have been spared from this predicament in other words it was the job of Rish Le to pray to DAV that he should not have to face such a moral dilemma today in somebody came over to me and he said well this explanation of thei is thear tells us that somebody was harmed by a wild animal in the vicinity of rabish and elu stopped appearing to rabish Lei so the very sameah and rabish lei we have another story where ELO stopped appearing to RAB Lei and there the gar says it's because RAB Le should have daved that nothing of the sort should have happened under his watch under his opes when he was the leader so just like in the Mak the Tiner R was he should have DAV not to be in this predicament similarly in thisi inas the Le is yes under the circumstances of course he had to deliver but he should have D not to be in that predicament and if he would have DAV not to be in that predicament then Hashem would have helped him out Hashem would have bailed him out Hashem would have found in in other words yes in the situation that he was in he had no alternative other than to deliver however if he would have prayed then Hashem has many ways to navigate and to get around such a difficult situation and the same thing could be said regarding these moral dilemmas that we're facing today under the circumstance what a terrible decision to have to make but it's incumbent upon every Jew to DAV that we shouldn't have to be in such a circumstance we should DAV that Hashem should rescue the hostages without having to trade in terrorists for the hostages there were heroic raids where hostages were rescued without having to give up terrorists it is our job to DAV every day that KES save every Jew who is in Peril every Jew who's in danger and we shouldn't be faced with such difficult and painful moral dilemas you know it's interesting when the hostages were released in anticipation of the release of the hes there was a question in halaka regarding what braa the family should make upon seeing their loved ones should they make a Shu we know if you haven't seen someone in 30 days according to the technical you make a Shu however we don't make that Braha nowadays because we have communication and we were able to uh know about the whereabouts of our loved ones so that braa so to speak has become obsolete on the other hand and the does say if you have a baby girl you do make a because you really have not seen this individual in 30 days actually you've never seen them before that would be a circumstance to say so it would seem certainly in this case you should make a on the other hand there's even more uh relevant and that is if you haven't seen someone in 12 months you make the now that's a we don't make either because we're also in in the age of communication we're uh aware of the whereabouts of our friends and loved ones but in this circumstance certainly for someone uh for a friend or a loved one of the hostages certainly should make the bra of my friend told me that suggested that even though the of is not legislated for the release of hostages or people in prison the was legislated that during the evening we're in somewhat of a state where we can't move of paralysis and in the morning were untethered nevertheless the braa literally does refer to the release of any person in a bound situation now if the hostages are released in the morning so then you could be when you say m for the release of the hostages but what about if they're going to be released after after it's somewhat say you can no longer say we're lenient but can you delay the recitation of M in order to say it with more kavana and have it going on the release of the hostages and R thought that it would be appropriate to delay the recitation of the even after in my humble Viewpoint perhaps I would say that it's not worthwhile to delay the uh most ideal recitation of a especially because the is not legislated for the release of hostages so it would be difficult to say that one should undermine in a certain sense the Fulfillment of that braa just to have it include a special salvation when after all you could have it in mind the next day in the morning however I think we could all say safely say that it is our duty to DAV at all the appropriate intervals that Hashem released these hostages in away that we shouldn't have to face such a difficult moral decision and when we say the or when we say we should be the Gratitude released many of the messages and as a that the rest of them should be released without having to face such a grueling and painful decision may we be to he only am me