Obama failed in his duty to redeem the captive

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel
Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

CHULA VISTA, California — This past Friday night, we rejoiced when we heard the news about Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who was finally released from having spent 214 days in a horrible Mexican prison.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this story, Tahmooressi was arrested on March 31 after he made a wrong turn from San Diego into Tijuana, Mexico. Unfortunately for him, he was carrying three weapons in his truck and this goes against Mexican law.  He could not make a U-Turn because the flow of traffic did not allow him to do so, since the only turn was located in the farthest lane from where he was driving.

Little did he realize that he was entering the strange and peculiar reality known as “The Mexican Zone.”

The U.S. Marine Reserve Sergant was arrested  after Mexican customs agents in the border city of Tijuana found three weapons in his truck. It is illegal to bring guns into Mexico.

The Mexican government treated him as if he deliberately set out to commit a crime, a crime that would have cost him 21 years in a very dangerous prison. Thanks to FOX news analyst Greta Van Susteren, she and several other people finally convinced a Mexican judge to let him out on humanitarian reasons because he suffered from PTSD.

While he languished in prison, Tahmooressi told his friend Mark Podlaski that he had been severely abused in the Mexican prison. Inmates beat him with a bat and dislocated his jaw. In addition, he was often stripped naked and chained or tightly handcuffed to a bed. As if that were not enough, by the time they finally released him at the end of a four week ordeal,  “he couldn’t even walk, he was crippled from such bad muscle dystrophy and joint pain and not being able to fire the muscles in his body.”

And throughout it all, President Obama did nothing to rescue this brave and decorated soldier, who spent several tours of duty in Afghanistan. Podlaski and others who knew  Tahmooressi, described him as a “Marine’s Marine.”

According to Jewish ethics, redeeming captives from prison is one of the most important mitzvoth of the Torah. The entire story of the Exodus out of Egypt is based upon this principle. When people face degradation because of their captivity, there is a moral response that every human being is commanded to participate: redeeming captives.

Several months ago, Obama broke American law and traded several high-ranking members of the Taliban A-Team  in order to free Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American soldier held captive in Afghanistan. As a justification, the President explained his rationale:

  • Sergeant Bergdahl has missed birthdays, and holidays and simple moments with family and friends which all of us take for granted. But while Bowe was gone, he was never forgotten”— not by his family or his hometown in Idaho, or the military. “And he wasn’t forgotten by his country, because the United States of America does not ever leave our men and women in uniform behind..

Any person with a modicum of humanity ought to wonder why the President didn’t ask our friendly neighbor, Mexico, to release Tahmooressi immediately after he was arrested. Yet, this never happened.

The immorality of our President’s behavior ought to fill all of us with disgust and disdain. The President met several times with the Mexican President and could have demanded his release.

The Talmud expounded the verse, “You shall not stand by the blood of your neighbor” (Lev. 19:16). The Sages teach us:

From where do we know that if a man sees his fellow drowning, mauled by beasts, or attacked by robbers, he is bound to save him? From the verse,  “You shall not stand by the blood of your neighbor” (Lev. 19:16). [1]

When it comes to living an ethical life, we must make courageous decisions to get involved. Ignoring someone else’s suffering makes the observer morally guilty of murder. There can be no moral hedging on this matter. It is a pity that our President does not seem to have a moral compass guiding him to do the right and ethical thing.

As Americans and as Jews, we have a moral duty to speak out and tell our leadership that we will never tolerate immoral and evil behavior. If our President is unwilling to act like a mentsch, then the time has come for him to step down and let someone else more competent and just to preside as the leader of the free world.

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Notes BT Sanhedrin 73a

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Rabbi Samuel is spiritual leader of Temple Beth Shalom in Chula Vista.  He may be contacted via michael.samuel@sdjewishworld.com

6 thoughts on “Obama failed in his duty to redeem the captive”

  1. Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

    Sorry, can’t agree with your position. For anyone who is interested in what really happened, here is a link with the 911 call that was made as soon as he accidentally entered Mexico.

    http://newsninja2012.com/marine-sgt-tahmooressis-911-call-after-he-accidentally-crossed-the-mexican-border

    From CNN:

    From a May 30 CNN report on Tahmooressi’s arrest:

    The Marine’s mom said he accidentally crossed into Mexico with three personal firearms — all bought legally in the U.S.

    The 25-year-old had intended to drive to meet friends in San Ysidro, California, on March 31.

    He was moving from Florida to California in the hope of getting a job and continuing treatment he had just begun for post traumatic stress related to his two combat tours, she said.

    With all his possessions in his truck, Tahmooressi accidentally drove across the border, she said.

    When he realized his mistake, his mother said, he dialed 911 and asked the operator to help him. No help came, Jill Tahmooressi said. Her son first encountered Mexican customs agents, she said, and he believed they understood that he’d made an innocent error. They seemed to be getting an escort car to help him, she said.

    But officers with the Mexican military interfered, she told “New Day,” and her son was arrested.

    Some people will defend Obama regardless how unethically he behaves. Readers should never forget how Obama resumed his golf game immediately after his interview regarding Tom Foley’s beheading.

    1. Dear Rabbi, I listened to the 911 call. I’m not sure what you expect it to prove except that he was upset the Mexicans wanted to take his guns away and that he missed the massive signs that litter the highway. He was already in Mexico in custody.

      I also note that again you fail to note that even his mother acknowledged that he had gone through that same border crossing some 6 times previously.

      The only sense I got from your article is that if you liked whoever was president more, you would not have been nearly as upset as you were/are at President Obama. On the other hand, regardless of whether if was President Obama or Bush, my opinion of the matter would not have changed.

  2. Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

    You really need to read Greta Van Susteren’s chronology carefully read her narrative. The poor man was never even given an interpreter after he was arrested. He contacted the US as soon as he realized he had accidentally crossed the border. The decorated war hero deserves all of our respect–yours as well.

    1. Because somebody is a decorated war veteran does not excuse them from carrying weapons into another country. His six previous entries at that border crossing hardly lends credence to crossing the border because of ignorance.

      You’re mistaken too if you think that Mexican border guards at the US/Mexican border cannot speak English.

  3. Did the marine just not recall the right lane to take from the 6 previous times he had made the trip which I notice you conveniently forgot to note. Hasn’t it come to light he tried to lie his way out of the situation which you also neglected to note? I feel terrible that he may or may not have been abused in prison but given your propensity not to actually do any research, how do I know you’re being truthful there?

    In fact he tried to smuggle 3 guns into a sovereign nation and lied about it once he was detained at the border. Try smuggling guns into Israel and lying about it. You think Israelis will look favorably upon that?

  4. Why did 70% of American Jewry vote to reelect him? After 1 term, they should have known what he was about. I sized him up from the beginning and never voted for him. He’s more concerned with encouraging unrest in Ferguson, MI than he ever was about Sgt. Tahmorressi. Obama is a creation of the media.

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