Life in Outer Space

“Star Wars”, “War of the Worlds”, “Fantastic Four”…the movie industry is full of exploits – and no doubt many loud explosions – focusing on man’s passion for the ‘unknown’ and the ‘unbelievable’ from outer space.

Nu, so what’s the ‘Jewish view’ I hear you ask? If everything is in the Torah, surely there must be an opinion or two here.

Well, you won’t be disappointed to hear there is indeed a Jewish view on the subject.

Dr. Velvl Greene, a biologist who used to work for the space agency NASA was involved in various projects to determine if there was life on Mars. A little unsure if such activity was ‘kosher’ He asked the Lubavitcher Rebbe in a private meeting if this was something he should be doing.

The Rebbe replied, “Dr. Greene, look for life on Mars! And if you don’t find it there, look somewhere else in the universe. Because for you to sit here and say there is no life outside of planet earth is to put limitations on the Creator, and that is something none of His creations can do!”

In the winter of 1969, after the second landing on the moon, the Rebbe addressed the topic of extraterrestrial life. Being that Jewish mystical teachings refer to the Torah as the spiritual blueprint of the world the Torah (Bible) must reveal something on the subject. With regard to the existence of extraterrestrial life the Rebbe said that the Bible clearly referred to such a possibility.

In the book of Judges, chapter 5, the prophetess Deborah sang a song in praise of G-d for helping Barak win the battle against his enemy Sisera. In verse 20 she sings: “The stars in their course fought against Sisera.” And then in verse 23 she continues: “Curse ‘Meroz!’, said the angel of the Lord, curse bitterly its inhabitants, because they did not come to the help of the Lord…against the mighty men.”

Who or what is this ‘Meroz’? According to one opinion in the Talmud — the authoritative oral interpretation of the Biblical texts — Meroz is a celestial body. Accordingly, the ‘inhabitants’ of ‘Meroz’ implies life on another planet. (cf. tractate Moed Katan page 16a) whose inhabitants did not come to Barak’s aid.

What are the implications should any extraterrestrial life be found? The Rebbe predicted that if any extraterrestrial life forms are discovered, they will definitely not be of the ‘human’ kind with freedom of choice. The reason for this is that freedom of choice was really only conferred on mankind by the giving of the Torah at mount Sinai. And Torah itself (G-d’s own testimony, as it were) confirms there was only one Giving of the Torah in history.

So all other creations – including any extraterrestrials – must follow a specific “biological program” inherent in their physiological makeup.

Man alone has the power and the ability to dominate and influence the course of nature, either constructively or, G-d forbid the opposite. Thus, any discovery of extraterrestrial life only intensifies our responsibility to protect, refine and elevate the entire universe in all its elements — mineral, vegetable and animal — and transform them into channels of divine energy by utilizing them for living better and more virtuous lives.

If Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, George Lucas – or any other ‘Hollywoodnicks’ – want to find out more about this let them contact us and we’ll be glad to discuss the matter further!