Praying for the Captives - September 2024

My thoughts and prayers, throughout this week, have been with the families of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Carmel Gat, Almog Sarusi, Alexander Lobanov and Ori Danino, may their memories be a blessing, found murdered in a tunnel in Gaza last Shabbat.

As regular attendees will know, we have offered at all services this year a prayer written by my colleagues, Rabbis Ofer and Rachel Sabath Beit Halachmi. The prayer calls for the captives’ strength, protection, rescue and redemption. It calls for understanding to be placed even in the heart of the enemy that they may return the captives. It calls for peace between all the sons and daughters of Abraham, Sarah – the archetypal mother of all Jews – and Hagar – as mother of Ishmael, a spiritual mother of Palestine. And it prays for the Israeli soldiers who, last Shabbat perhaps most painfully, are tasked to make their way into these tunnels of unimaginable danger.

The prayer has given my yearning and pain a place of tethering. It has allowed me a vehicle for a faith sustained not by certainty but in hope. I’ve been grateful for it. Following the rescue of  Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrei Kozlov, and Shlomi Zivin June, a member wrote to me in delight that the news that broke following that morning’s recitation and urging its increased use. I don’t think either of us believe in a theology quite that literal, but the prayer, I believe, has helped.

The original prayer, written I think in late October last year, addressed the ‘enemy,’ but didn’t address the political leadership of Israel, tasked with a balance of unspeakable complexity – securing Israel while fighting for and also negotiating for the release of captives. The demand to rescue captives through negotiation – Pidyon Shevuim – is a tragically well-known Mitzvah – core obligation of our faith.

Rambam (Hilchot Matanot Evyonim 8:10) codifies this obligation as follows.

“Redeeming captives receives priority over providing the poor with food and clothing. There is no mitzvah greater than redeeming captives, because a captive is included among those who are starving, those who are thirsty, those who are without clothing, and they are in life-threatening danger. One who hides from redeeming them violates the following Torah prohibitions…” And here the Mishneh Torah cites eight verses from Chumash followed by this heartbreaking  verse from Proverbs, “Release those who have been taken from death (Mishlei 24:11). “There is,” Rambam states, “No greater command than the redemption of captives.”

This utterly compelling call does not, of course, imagine there is no calculus – Halachah makes clear that there is a limit to the price payable for the release of a captive since paying too high a price could simply drive more hostage-taking. But the horror of captivity and the vital importance of a negotiated release is so central to our faith, and our needs at this time, that we have added a new paragraph to our prayer. My thanks, particularly, to David for his assistance drafting the following.

פְּקוֹד נָא בְּחֹסֶן וּבְחֶמְלָה אֶת מַנְהִיגֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, רָאשֶׁיהָ וְיוֹעֲצֶיהָ, לְקַיֵּם מָה שֶׁכָּתוּב "לֹא תְאַמֵּץ אֶת לְבָבְךָ וְלֹא תִקְפֹּץ אֶת יָדְךָ", וּמָה שֶׁכָּתוּב "לֹא תַעֲמֹד עַל דַּם רֵעֶךָ", וְלִפְדּוֹת אֶת הַשְּׁבוּיִים הַמְּחַכִּים לִישׁוּעָתֶךָ.

Evoke fortitude and compassion in the leaders of Israel, its rulers and advisers, to uphold what is written, “Do not harden your heart and shut your hand against your needy kin” (Deut 15:7)  and what is written, “Do not stand on the blood of your fellow” (Levi 19:16), and redeem the captives who are awaiting your salvation.

May it come speedily.

Shabbat Shalom