Monday, October 24, 2011

Shalit Exchange:Halachic Analysis


The recent exchange of Gilad Schalit for over 1000 Palestinian prisoners, many with blood on their hands, has sparked much debate in the Jewish community. Is this exchange wise?  Is it permitted according to Halacha?  Are we not endangering the lives of so many others in this move?

Many of the Rabbis who have discussed the issue thus far have come out that the exchange is a violation of halacha.  Among them were Rabbi Dov Lior of Kiryat Arba and Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the son of Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu zt”l the former Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel (see http://yourjewishnews.com/12143.aspx).  It seems that at least initially, Rabbi Amar the current Sefardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, was also in agreement with them. Respectfully, however, this may not necessarily be the last word on the subject. 

Let us not forget that often, halacha is not so clear cut.  Every case in halacha must be examined upon its own merits and the specifics of each case.  We must do the same here.

14 comments :

  1. The Maharam miRuttenberg said on his own status as prisoner of a corrupt emperor that it is assur to ransom him as it will cause more Jews to be kidnapped.

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  2. I always heard that he died in prison... [???]

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  3. He did die in prison but his body was redeemed.

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  4. Is it possible the Maharam miRuttenberg saying he shouldn't be rescued was a chumra he was taking upon himself rather than a general psak he was issuing for all such situations involving others? Did he even issue his request as a psak?

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  5. R' Meyer Lehmann, a talmid of R' Ezriel Hildesheimer who was the rov of Mayence writes in his popular seforim for kids that the Maharam did issue it as a psak.

    He was deemed correct. After the body was redeemed, the Maharam's eidim the Rosh got wind that he was going to be kidnapped in part due to his status as the new gadol hador, prompting him to flee to Spain.

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  6. The United States government has an official policy of not paying kidnappers but does it all the time anyway.

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  7. What about Israelis taking out kidnap insurance like multi-national corporations and wealthy residents of 3rd world countries?

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  8. Foggy: The US Government does not pay kidnappers. The French Government does.

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  9. I understand the psak of the Maharam to apply in situations in which the only motivation for kidnapping is the financial gain. Remove the incentive, no more kidnapping. In our case, Arabs have always been and will always be motivated to kidnap and kill Israelis for its own sake and they will even kill themselves to do so. The only difference I see now is that now they may be more motivated to keep them alive instead of killing them right away as they are worth more alive than dead. This would seem to me a good thing.

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  10. So what could be the possible lomdus? Arabs are prone to launch suicide attacks whether these thousand+ proven rotzchim are released or not?

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  11. And how do we reconcile the takonas Kadmonim who said there is a chiyuv to hunt down kidnappers of Jews to either kill them on the spot or hand them over to the malchus? The intention of the Kadmonim was to dampen the incentive of the kidnappers who were getting out of control in the early Medieval era. This is also in the kesovim of Rav Lehmann but in a different sefer. This is also only vos me redt veggen kidnappers for profit?

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  12. r' markus lehman's books are not something to base history on. for example the rosh WAS NOT maharam merotenberg's son in law (lehman's used historicall stories to make nice novels for the youth but never intended for his works to be considered history).

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  13. paskunyak: we don't disagree with each other. My point is that removing a tangible incentive (in this case, refusing a prisoner exchange) does not remove their incentive to kidnap more Jews, lo aleinu. Hunting them down and killing them might be a different story. Just get your guy alive first.

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