Unpacking the Iggerot: How Can We Celebrate?
This is a special supplemental entry in the “Unpacking the Iggerot” series, marking the recovery of the final Israeli hostage from Gaza. Read more about “Unpacking the Iggerot” and see the archive of all past columns.
While I was compiling material for our upcoming columns on issues of triage and complex matters of life and death in R. Moshe Feinstein’s writings, we received the news that the body of the final Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili, had been recovered and returned for burial in Eretz Yisrael. And so in a bittersweet manner one of the darkest chapters of modern Jewish history draws to a close, even as other struggles continue.
Rather than tuck it away in an endnote, as I had originally planned, I wish to take the opportunity to highlight some of R. Feinstein’s dealings with issues of hostage negotiations (a small contribution to the writings of Rabbis J. David Bleich, Daniel Z. Feldman, and others in the pages of TRADITION).
When a plane carrying Jewish and Israeli passengers on their way to France was hijacked, R. Feinstein wrote to Prime Minister Golda Meir that “one [Jewish] soul is more significant than all of the incarcerated terrorists and [if necessary] you should release them all!” However, he insisted that, in truth, the Israeli government should execute captured terrorists rather than keep them alive so that the enemy will be incentivized to kidnap Jewish people as bargaining chips for them (see Mesorat Moshe, vol. 4, p. 439).
R. Shimon Finkelman records the following anecdote:
In the summer of 1970, Arab terrorists hijacked three TWA jets, forcing the pilots to land in the Jordanian desert, where the passengers were held hostage for some time. Among the hostages were Rabbi Yitzchak Hutner, Rosh Yeshivah of Mesivta Rabbi Chaim Berlin and one of Klal Yisrael’s leading Torah figures, and his family. While Jewry prayed for the safe release of all the prisoners, there was special concern for the fate of Rav Hutner, to whom so many turned for teaching and inspiration, and whose advanced age made prolonged captivity especially dangerous.
During the many days that the hostages were held there was a heat wave in New York. Reb Moshe remarked to his talmid, Rabbi Yosef Brick, that Hashem had brought the intense heat upon them so that they should feel the suffering of the hostages.
One afternoon, Reb Moshe entered the beis midrash of Mesivtha Tifereth Jerusalem in a jovial mood. “So, Rav Hutner has been released!” he smilingly told someone. The person, looking somewhat confused, informed Reb Moshe that the news reports had made no mention of the hostages’ release.
That night it was learned that the crisis had indeed ended with the safe release of all hostages….
Roshei Yeshivah instructed their yeshivos to charter buses so that senior talmidim could join them at Kennedy Airport to greet Rav Hutner upon his arrival from Jordan. The scene was a joyous one, and to add to everyone’s rejoicing, a group of Orthodox musicians had come on their own to play lively music in honor of Rav Hutner’s deliverance from captivity.
Reb Moshe approached the band leader and told him not to play any music. “Six captives have still not been released,” he said. “We cannot rejoice until everyone is freed” (Reb Moshe [ArtScroll], 460–461).
R. Yaakov Bender, who was present at that moment, corroborates that R. Feinstein disapproved of the celebratory, musical performance: “Because it is inappropriate to celebrate to such a degree while some of the passengers remain in captivity…. While there is great jubilation over the return of R. Hutner, we cannot forget the anguish of those who have not yet merited to be freed” (Divrei Yaakov, Bereishit, 55).
Elsewhere, in a case regarding a certain “Rosh Yeshiva” (perhaps it was the exact case of R. Hunter), it was reported that R. Feinstein disapproved of prioritizing him over other Jews who were in similar dire straits (Reshumei Aharon, vol. 2, p. 8).
While all of the hostages have been returned, ours is far from the circumstances that we prayed for and hoped. Even while there are no longer any of our brothers and sisters in physical captivity, we dare not forget the pain and anguish that will continue for the many families who long for a true freedom that is still out of reach.
Moshe Kurtz is the rabbi of Cong. Sons of Israel in Allentown, PA, the author of Meoros Moshe, Challenging Assumptions, and hosts the As I Walk Through the Valley podcast.