As we hope and pray for good news about the remaining hostages in Gaza, at least we can savor the fact that perhaps the best-treated hostage ever was Queen Esther, who had been abducted by King Ahasverosh’s’ matchmakers presumably by force (“Esther was taken to the King’s palace” Esther 2:8). Presumably Esther was the only contestant who did not want to win, but who nevertheless was the only first-place winner from all 127 provinces within the Persian Empire.

According to the Talmud, when it became known that King David was looking for a wife, “whoever had a daughter brought her to him,” but by contrast, when King Ahashaverosh sent out his matchmakers to find a potential wife, whoever had a daughter (not just the Jews, presumably — AR) hid her from him” (Talmud Megillah 12b), and for good reason. There could be only one winner, and every loser lost not only her virginity but also her freedom, as she was kept in the king’s harem from that time forward, according to some sources, In some ways, this was worse than what happened even to some of the Oct. 7 hostages, who always had hope for freedom, especially in light of the Israelis’ track record of saving hostages by force or negotiations.

The daf yomi studied around the world on the Fast of Esther (Sanhedrin 86 and the daf of the day before) discusses kidnapping/hostage situations in general.

One of the Ten Commandments outlaws kidnapping, though, unfortunately, the death penalty imposed by the Bible did not, and is not likely to, deter the forces of Hamas. The Talmud discusses four levels of kidnapping, but none rise to the level of evil perpetrated by Hamas: (1) abducting, (2) bringing the victim into the possession of the perpetrator, (3) using or exploiting or enslaving him (although enslavement is spelled out not directly in either rendition of the Ten Commandments but rather in Vayikra 25:42), and then (4) selling him (Devarim 24:7). Notice that the Talmud doesn’t even mention torturing or murdering the victim or using psychological manipulations.

The language in the Ten Commandments (not to “steal”— lo tignov) (Shemot and Devarim) is virtually identical to the language in Vayikra 19:11 (lo tignovu) except that the language in the Ten Commandments refers to kidnapping and the language in Vayikra refers to stealing property and is in the plural. The Talmud explains that the fundamental difference is based on the context. But the fact that the prohibition in Vayikra is in the plural obviously has to be for a reason.

The Be’er Yosef of Salant, as cited by Rabbi Shalom Rosner, observed that when property is stolen, and then the victim locates the stolen property and tries to recover it, it seems to onlookers as if he — the victim -— is stealing (which is ironic – AR — since by definition the original theft was by stealth, with no onlookers), and he is taken — or mistaken — for being a robber. So there are two apparent instances of stealing, hence lo tignovu in the plural, whereas in the case of kidnapping, the victim can’t undo the damage caused by the crime with another act seemingly identical to it, but simply escapes, hence lo tignov in the singular—the offensive behavior only happens once and by one party.

Actually, this writer notes that there is a similarity in the case of kidnapping as well, where the fleeing victim may be mistaken for a kidnapper, as was the case of the Jews who were kidnapped by Hamas and then killed by the “friendly fire” of Israeli soldiers who mistook them for kidnappers and/or terrorists.

It is for this reason, of course, that hostage escapees take pains, if they can, to avoid a situation of being mistaken for terrorists by making it clear they are not hiding weapons while shouting some biblical prayers like Shema Yisrael with more fervor than many people in shul on Yom Kippur.

We hope and pray that Moshiach will come soon so we will not be confronted by kidnappers or robbers or any other people interfering with peace and justice.

The writer has written articles on a wide variety of topics (many pre-Internet) and has written, edited, and/or supplemented various books, most notably on Harry Fischel, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, and Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, all of whom inspired and empowered their fellow Jews to withstand and resist adversity of any kind.