Held Hostage

On 6 September 1970, TWA flight 741 was seized by terrorists while carrying Rav Hutner home to New York from Eretz Yisroel. With him were his wife, his daughter and his son-in-law, Rav Yonasan David. The hijackers let the non-Jewish passengers go but kept the Jews on board. A week later the women and children were sent to Cyprus, and the aircraft were destroyed with explosives.

Over forty Jewish men remained prisoners, in and near Amman, Jordan. They included Rav Hutner, Rav Yonasan David and two talmidim who had traveled with him, Rav Meir Fund and Rav Yaakov Drillman. At one stage Rav Hutner was kept by himself in a remote spot while Jews around the world davened for him. Some of the terrorists wanted to cut his beard, but their commanders held them back.

Alarm spread throughout the Torah world. Large gatherings were held to daven, and askanim worked day and night. The Steipler and Rav Shach went to the Prime Minister and other members of the government to explain Rav Hutner’s stature among the Torah community. Meanwhile, frightening rumors circulated about the Zarka Desert, which was thought to be where the captives were kept.

While explosions and shooting went on around him, Rav Hutner looked deeply into himself. He kept thinking of what Chazal tell of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel and Rebbi Yishmael as they were led to be killed, when Rabban Shimon confessed that he did not know why he was to die. Day after day Rav Hutner asked himself whether some fundamental piece of understanding was missing in him that would explain why his life seemed to be coming to an end. He spoke of this later in his ma’amorim during the Aseres Yemei Teshuvah.

Delegations visited the captives daily. One of their leaders, a man of dignified bearing, bowed courteously to Rav Hutner and spoke with him. When he had gone, Rav Hutner remarked, “His face. That is the nobility of Yishmoel.” He explained afterward that the descendants of Yishmoel carry honor that lacks power, whereas Eisov’s honor comes joined with power, and he developed this at length in a ma’amar on Succos of 5731 (1970).

The captives were freed on the twenty-fifth of Elul and flown to Cyprus, where Rav Menachem Porush was waiting with a chartered plane. Rav Hutner’s tallis, tefillin, shirt, jacket and hat had all been taken from him, so a former talmid, Willie Frommer, gave him his own shirt and tallis katan. Rav Porush noted that Rav Hutner had lost twenty kilograms. The group reached New York just before the first night of Rosh Hashanah. Before tekias shofar Rav Hutner delivered a ma’amar, so that his followers would not lose any Torah learning because of his ordeal, and he thanked Klal Yisroel for the prayers that had helped bring him home.