On Tuesday and Wednesday evening in shul, Rabbi Kenigsberg
filled the gap between mincha and maariv with a riveting two-part shiur on the
halacha relating to the redemption of hostages. This was not a political presentation.
It started with two famous quotes from Rambam (right) about the primacy of the mitzvah
of redeeming captives (basically “there is no greater mitzvah”), then reviewed
modern approaches to this topic from, among others, Rabbi Ovadyah Yosef, the
Chazon Ish and Rabbi Yisraeli.
Among the topics Rabbi Kenigsberg discussed was the
relationship between pidyon shevu’im (redemption of hostages) and pikuach
nefesh (the imperative need to preserve life), the relevance of probability
theory to the calculations involving the exchange of hostages for terrorist prisoners
and the applicability of pre-state rulings to modern conditions.
You can follow the first half of this shiur here on the Hanassi
YouTube channel; the second half is here.
