ABSTRACT
Redemption was a responsibility of a Jew towards his neighbour, of the community towards its own members and of the Jewish people as a whole towards other parts of the Jewish nation. That a similar responsibility is indeed felt by every human collectivity is well known. The Jewish people, however, whether because of its special socio-historical condition or because of the system of norms it had internalized, does seem to have viewed the redemption of captives as a particularly heavy responsibility and a virtuous and necessary deed. This was of course due to the physical danger involved in captivity, but the classical and halakhic ‘captivity’ was not always bound up with a threat to life. A Jew confined in a foreign prison for non-payment of a debt is considered to be a ‘captive’ and it follows, then, that the notion of redemption of captives has a very wide connotation.
