Despite President Trump proclaiming repeatedly in his Knesset speech that the war is over, that is far from the case
And for religious Jews, the joy of the hostage release was heightened by the knowledge that it took place on Hoshana Rabbah, one of the two days mentioned by the Yerushalmi (Rosh Hashanah 4:8) as particularly auspicious for calling out in prayer to Hashem. The hostages have been at the forefront of our prayers and Tehillim since they were first taken captive.
The hostages were released from captivity precisely two years to the day since they were taken into captivity, just like Yosef Hatzaddik, who spent another two years in prison after he interpreted the dreams of the royal wine bearer and baker.
Clearly, this was no ordinary event. On Shemini Atzeres 5774, when 251 hostages were taken into captivity, the IDF told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he should forget about ever securing their return, especially if he chose to pursue an all-out war on Hamas. Yet in the end, 168 out of those 251 hostages returned alive.
The euphoria of the day was inevitably tinged, however, with a large measure of sadness over the heavy price the events of October 7 and beyond imposed on Israel: more than 1,200 killed that day, the approximately 1,100 soldiers who fell in subsequent combat, and the dozens of captives who died or were murdered in captivity. And the numbers of the dead are only part of the story.
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