'Those for and against a hostage deal are both acting out of a collective responsibility'

'Those for and against a hostage deal are both acting out of a collective responsibility'

Hagay Lober, whose son was killed in Gaza, joined the hostages' families' protests but doesn't think anyone should break the rules. For him, the cease-fire deal's opponents and proponents are both acting on the same core values

Ask the Rabbis | Does Jewish Law Require that Hostages be Redeemed Regardless of Cost?

INDEPENDENT Jewish law should be reckoned in context rather than in blanket one-size-fits-all applications. While there is barely a mitzvah more urgent than the redemption of captives, the question of cost must be considered—not in funds but in lives. The kidnappers’ demand in the present case was not ransom money but a pause in a war against thousands of sworn mass murderers and the release from imprisonment of hundreds more, all hell-bent on r…