"We're Jews, we're Jews in space; we're zooming along protecting the Hebrew race!"
-History of the World, Part 1
Q: How does Jewish tradition view our place in the cosmos?
(14) God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times—the days and the years; (15) and they serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so. (16) God made the two great lights, the greater light to dominate the day and the lesser light to dominate the night, and the stars. (17) And God set them in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, (18) to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that this was good. (19) And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.
(13) Remember Your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, how You swore to them by Your Self and said to them: I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I will give to your offspring this whole land of which I spoke, to possess forever.”
How many stars are visible from earth? About 10,000
(20) The stars fought from heaven, From their courses they fought against Sisera. (21) The torrent Kishon swept them away, The raging torrent, the torrent Kishon. March on, my soul, with courage! (22) Then the horses’ hoofs pounded As headlong galloped the steeds. (23) “Curse Meroz!” said the angel of the LORD. “Bitterly curse its inhabitants, Because they came not to the aid of the LORD, To the aid of the LORD among the warriors.”
Q: How do we live a Jewish life off-planet? Judaism came into being in the Middle East, one region on our planet in which time proceeds according to the 24 hour day, and climate/seasons support scheduling of sowing and harvesting during those successive seasons. Jewish life has flourished outside the Middle East for millennia (including in the southern hemisphere where seasons are opposite), but what about Jewish life and observance in the polar regions, in low-earth orbit, and beyond?
J. David Bleich, "Mitzvoth in the polar regions and in earth orbit"
-"The issue of Sabbath observance aboard a space ship is a novel extension of the much older question of Sabbath observance in the polar regions and adjacent areas in which daylight and darkness extend for months at a time rather than alternating in periods of approximately 24 hours."
-A response from 1886, Rabbi Simcha Ha'Levi Bamberger, "...Why should a person, even during weekdays, place himself in a state of doubt with regard to reading of the Shema and prayer? At the minimum, do not remain in that country on Shabbat [where] there is doubt with regard to what to do..." (Letter to his son who was considering a business trip to Norway)
(א) דין ההולך במדבר בשבת ובו ב' סעיפים:
ההולך במדבר ואינו יודע מתי הוא שבת מונה שבעה ימים מיום שנתן אל לבו שכחתו ומקדש השביעי בקידוש והבדלה...
The one who is walking in the wilderness, and does not know when it is Shabbat: Count 7 days from the day she loses track of time, and sanctify the seventh with Kiddush and Havdalah...
R. Jacob Emden (Germany, End of 17th-18th Century):
"those traveling below the polar region where the day is prolonged into a month or two months and [in some places] six months should count six days of our twenty-four equal hours."
Q: When does the 'sequence of days begin in order to determine the 7th day of each weekly cycle?"
A: The traveller calculates his/her own week 'upon arrival regardless of which day of the week it might be elsewhere on the globe.'
The Shulchan Aruch solution (Orach Chayim 344:1) as quoted above suggests the traveller 'remains in a quandary...he must refrain from activity forbidden on Shabbat on each and every day." (emphasis added)
R. David ibn Zimra - '...the onset and conclusion of Shabbat is determined locally' - and so, perhaps in regions where there are not 24 hours days, it is possible that there is 'no concept of halakhic time in such places [in extreme northern and southern regions].
*milta de'lo sh'chicha lo gaz'ru bay rabanan - The Rabbis did not make rulings over 'the unusual and unanticipated' - and so perhaps polar regions and space are beyond the 'parameters of existing rabbinic legislation' and 'there is, in realty, no such obligation [to observe time-bound mitzvoth in those locations].
Position of the Tiferet Israel, R. Israel Lipschutz (19th c.)
--'The day is determined objectively rather than individually by each traveler....Shabbat occurs at the North Pole the same day as it does on the rest of the globe and is objectively determined by the 'revolutions' of the sun in the sky.'
--The traveller should adopt the 'clock' of the 'place from which he departed'.
A Jewish astronaut in earth orbit is flying at 17,000 miles per hour and orbits the earth about once every 90 minutes.
J. David Bleich argues, 'There is no reason why the astronaut should be required to recite kiddush or to offer any of the statutory prayers more than once during the course of a day.
Other approaches: Choose the schedule of the nearest city with a day/night cycle. In space, choose either the mission control location or any other settlement. On other planets, follow the traveler rule from Shulchan Aruch...For festivals, 'all Jews must look to Jerusalem to establish the date....off planet Jews will observe a tw-day span for festivals...(R. Josh Breindel 'Sci-Fi Rabbi' 8/29/2015)
Q: Should a Jewish person place himself/herself into a situation in which he/she leaves from the normative Jewish time structure?
According to Zecher Simchah, 'Adam decreed that only areas in which mitzvoth might be observed should be inhabited; he decreed that areas in which mitzvoth are not fully binding should remain desolate and uninhabited.'
How many Jewish astronauts? Quite a few!
How about Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space! (never told anyone he was Jewish)
Boris Volynov, Judith Resnick, Jeffrey Hoffman, Gregory Chamitoff, Ilan Ramon - The first to request kosher food in space, and to consult regarding Shabbat in orbit, Gary Reissman, Scott Jay Horowitz, John Mace Grunfeld, Martin Joseph Fettman, Ellen Louise Shulman Baker
David A. Weintraub Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How will we deal with it?
Story of 'The Bulbas' p. 75
Q: What does Jewish tradition think about the possibility of life beyond earth?
Rabbi Hasdai Crescas (1340-1410) Light of the Lord - 'Space is infinite and infinite space contains a potentially infinite number of worlds. In such a universe, nothing in physics and nothing in scripture or Talmudic writings can deny the existence of ET life.
Rabbi Pinchas Eliyahu Horowitz of Vilna (1765-1821) - [Based upon the Talmud teaching, 'God flyer through 18,000 worlds on His chariot at night'] He suggests 'intelligent life exists on these 18,000 worlds, though these life forms may not be similar to terrestrial life forms.'
Student of Rabbi Crescas R. Yosel Also (1380-1444) "...because no other creatures could have free will, there would be no reason for them to exist; therefore, they do not exist."
R. Horowitz of Vilna, Sefer Ha'Brit, 'ETs would have no free will and no moral responsibility, but...they might still exist.'
Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983), "The basic premise that of all possible species only many has free will, is well supported by the great Kabbalist, Rabbi Moshe Kordovero in his Pardes Rimonim. Using tight logical arguments, he demonstrates that there can be only one set of spiritual worlds. Although God would want to maximize the number of recipients of His good, His very unity precludes the existence of more than one such set. Since this set of worlds deals specifically with God's providence toward man because of his free will, this also precludes the existence of another species sharing this quality."
Zohar - There are 7 earths each with inhabitants.
R. Norman Lamm The Religious Implications of Extraterrestrial Life (1986)
"The discovery of fellow intelligent creatures elsewhere in the universe, if indeed they do exist, will deepen and broaden our appreciation of the mysteries of the Creator and His creations. Man will be humble, but not humiliated."
'Judaism is only for those who identify as Jews here on Earth: "Torah was given to man on earth and its concern is limited to terrestrial affairs..."
Q: Weintraub asks, could ETs be Jewish?
'ETs might discover, through their own history and prophets, ways to worship the same God, but they would not be Jewish...the God of Judaism is universal..[but] Is Judaism universal? Not likely.