A religious obligation to which Jews have given the highest priority since biblical times, in accordance with their interpretation of the commandment: “You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbour”. The rabbis considered the ransoming of captives to be one of Judaism's fundamental duties; for both Maimonides and the Shulhan Aruch, failure to act promptly in securing a captive's release is tantamount to shedding his blood. Even a Scroll of the Law could be sold to raise money to ransom captives. At the same time, however, talmudic sages opposed giving way to extortion by paying inflated ransoms. This is the position taken by Maimonides and most later authorities, such as David Ibn Zimra (Radbaz), who wrote that even where lives may be at stake, a captive's release is not to be secured today if it will endanger another person's security tomorrow. MEIR (Maharam) of Rothenburg, when imprisoned in 1286 by the Holy Roman emperor, Rudolf I of Hapsburg, created a precedent by refusing to allow fellow Jews to obtain his release in exchange for a vast sum. He chose to spend the remaining seven years of his life in jail, rather than yield to the imperial extortioner and thereby encourage other despots to kidnap Jewish scholars. Nevertheless, every effort was generally made to liberate Jews sold into slavery or held to ransom. This obligation to redeem captives was usually discharged through a communal fund that gave practical expression to the talmudic dictum: “All Jews are responsible for one another”.

Present-day realities, in the form of hijacks and kidnapping, have made the ransoming of hostages a live issue, the price demanded being sometimes political (the freeing of terrorists) and sometimes financial (the payment of a ransom). Authorities have suggested that the thrust of Jewish thinking is to resist the demands of hijackers, even if this runs counter to natural feelings of compassion. If giving way to extortion will place other lives in jeopardy, no exchange is permissible. On the other hand, where the release of hostages in exchange for political prisoners or convicts (or even, as has been the case with Israel, in exchange for the bodies of Israelis held by their enemies) is not likely to endanger public security, every effort should be made to redeem those in captivity.