Purim - 5773

Purim- 5773

Rabbi Hal Miller

From Hodu to Cush, a hundred and twenty seven provinces [Esther 8:9]

Throughout the Book of Esther we find references to what were in those days

extensive distances, with evidence that people traveled those lengths from

time to time. The Gemora is replete with examples of laws that apply to

people traveling great distances. In our day, technological advances have

given us the ability to travel far greater distance, even to the extent of

continuous travel beyond the normal lifespan of a human being. It is not

clear how to apply the well known rules regarding travel when such great

travel times are involved, so we must look deeper to ensure proper

application. What are the rules regarding space travel? How does the Torah

regulate our actions once we leave the confines of Earth? We begin with some

classifications.

We first divide the problem into three distance groups: interplanetary,

intragalactic, and intergalactic. Travel in the first category (between the

planets of our solar system) requires only a matter of a relatively small

number of years, clearly well within a human's expected lifespan. The third

category (between galaxy systems) requires more than a normal human lifespan,

at the speeds of which our current technology is capable. Thus the middle

category (between solar systems within our galaxy) is probably not necessary

for our purposes, as it takes a great number of years to make such travel much

like the third category. We will limit ourselves to looking only at the two.

In both cases, the real issue is 'time'--how does travel over these distances

impact the timing of Jewish practices?

We then divide the problem into four categories of spatial location: on

Earth, within visual range of Earth, within tool-enhanced range of Earth,

beyond range of Earth. The issue here is relationship between a given 'place'

and the Temple Mount.

Between time and place we could construct a complex matrix of issues, but

it would not be relevant, as our halachic questions each apply to either one,

but not both at one time. Therefore we will consider them separately.

What are those halachic problem areas? Many issues in Jewish practice rely

on timing. Although women are, in general, not bound by time-based

commandments, there are many exceptions, so ladies, don't go walking off yet.

Other points in practice depend on where you are physically located.

Some examples:

TIME ISSUES

-----------

There's an old joke that seems relevant. Following the 'highly successful'

"Teacher in Space" program, NASA decided to try a "Clergy in Space" flight,

hoping to gain a wider audience that would help pressure Congress for more

funding. They invited three pastoral members for a shuttle flight to the

orbiting space station, a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and a

rabbi. The launch and flight were successful. Upon their return to solid

ground, the news media conference featured these three members of the cloth.

The priest, manipulating his rosary beads, kept murmuring, "I met G-d, I

met G-d!" The only other words they got out of him were, "It was fantastic!"

The minister took his turn at the microphone. Amid much broad handwaving,

he explained how G-d had spoken to him directly, and expressed His fears

over the behavior of the human race in general. The Master of the Universe

tasked him, he said, with leading mankind "to the river". The minister

finally gave his 'personal impressions', with the words "amazing, beautiful,

I couldn't believe how wonderful!"

The rabbi was pressed forward to speak. He stood silently for a bit, then

hesitantly, almost whispering, said, "I'm afraid I must disagree with my

illustrious fellow travelers. It was a pain." When asked why, he replied,

"On with the tefillin, off with the tefillin. On with the tefillin, off with

the tefillin....."

1) We are commanded to put on tefillin almost every day. The mitzvah can

only be done during daylight, not at night. Cloud cover is not relevant, only

the time of day. But what do we do when there is no 'day'? We do not put

on tefillin on Shabbos or holidays (many have the custom to also 'lay off'

during chol ha'moed), but how do we determine what days we are supposed to

perform this mitzvah?

2) The commandment to pray includes three daily sessions, one after sunrise

and before the middle of the day, one after mid-day but before sunset,

and one after sunset (yes, there are additional specifics to these.) But

what do we do when there is no sunrise or sunset or mid-day at all?

3) Before we begin studying Torah each day (meaning during daylight) we say

a prayer over the study itself. If there is no night to conclude, when do

we say this prayer?

4) Burial takes place the day following a person's death (with some

exceptions). Laws of mourning change right after burial, seven days later,

thirty days after burial, and again after a year. Some of these laws are

impacted by when a mourner learns of the death. Since space travel yields

communication delays, and a lack of these time elements, how do we handle

mourning? When is the annual yahrtzeit?

5) Our holidays are linked to times of the year, seasons, anniversaries,

etc. When do you celebrate Passover if there is no "month of spring"? What

does it mean to be the 'new moon' for a new month, if there is no moon? When

do you celebrate the first harvest of barley if the crop is not dependent upon

a solar season?

6) The human life cycle plays a big part in halachah. One is born,

circumcised on the eighth day, becomes subject to commandments at 13, and

passes away at 120. What if the space flight will last more than 120 years?

How do we adjust for "suspended animation", as may be required for extremely

long flights?

7) When one plants a fruit tree, the first three years' crop is not to be

used. The fourth year's crop must be taken to Jerusalem and eaten there.

Further crops are available to the tree's owner. How do we calculate which

crop is which?

PLACE ISSUES

------------

8) When praying outside the land of Israel, one faces toward it (usually

referred to as facing 'east'). When in Israel, one faces toward Jerusalem.

When in Jerusalem, one faces toward the Temple Mount. Where do you face when

in a spacecraft? Toward Earth? What about the case where the craft is

continuously spinning (one of the methods of creating an artificial gravity),

do you need to keep turning?

9) Many halachas apply only in the land of Israel. Some apply only outside,

"in the provinces" as termed in the Megillah of Esther. At first glance, we

might think that rules for space should follow that of the provinces, but is

that really correct? Those halachas refer to places connected by terra firma,

the Earth itself, to Jerusalem. Do they apply where there is no such physical

connection?

10) Some halachas only apply when a majority of Jews live in the land

of Israel. Other laws only apply when a majority of Jews live elsewhere on

Earth. If Jews are in space, are they counted to determine that majority?

11) The Torah specifies four dozen "cities of refuge" in the land, as places

where an unintentional killer might find haven from the blood-seekers of the

victim's family. These cities were spread around the area so that all Jews

who might have a need could get to one before themselves being killed. If

one is in deep space, will we need to create more such refuges?

12) In the laws of 'spiritual purity' (tumah), one of the ways this unseen

problem can be spread is by something or someone being immediately above or

below a ritually impure object. In space, which way is up?

13) A key practice even today in the effort to maintain a close connection

to Hashem and His creation is the monthly honoring of the new moon. Once

every 28 years, we honor the return of the sun to the location it occupied in

the moment of Creation. Can we do these mitzvos if we cannot see these

particular Heavenly bodies?

14) Every meal (where we eat bread) is completed by "bentsching", thanking

Hashem "for the land and for the food". Since the land that grew the food

we might be eating in space is not connected to The Land about which this

blessing refers, does the text of this blessing need a change?

15) Back to orlah, where do we take the fourth year's crop when we bring it

up? It would spoil before we got it from Alpha Centauri to Earth.

16) Speaking of Alpha Centauri, and bringing 'up', one mitzvah is to 'make

aliyah', to move from the dispersion back up to the Land of Israel. The

'up' refers both to a spiritual raising, and a physical one, as Jerusalem

is on a mountain, and we are considered to be climbing. Is Jerusalem 'up'

from Alpha Centauri?

DISCUSSION

----------

Perhaps our first question is, "do the Torah mitzvos apply in space?".

While any believing Jew would likely scoff at such a question, we have

numerous examples of the question in other forms. For example, in the

Megillah [8:17] we read, "Likewise, in every province, and in every city,

wherever the King's command and his decree reached, the Jews had gladness and

joy, a feast and a holiday." The "king" referred to here was the human one

in the story, Achashuerus. The extent of his law was the 127 'provinces'.

Beyond that, his decrees had no influence. Why? Because his kingdom was

set up to only cover those 127, and as a practical matter, he could not

reach beyond that limit. While we believe that Hashem has complete practical

ability, here we are asking whether the Torah was set up to cover beyond the

Earth. Certainly its stories, places and participants were Earth-bound,

with no obvious allusions to other planets even though some of them were

known at the time. Was the Torah intended only for Earth? The answer to

this follows the laws of airplane travel. Although this technology is not

listed in the Books of Moshe, the rules can be deduced directly from rules

applied in other areas by extension. We must conclude that the Torah

envisioned existence outside the boundaries of this planet, and that the

mitzvos apply, albeit perhaps in different specifics than here on Earth.

Can we simplify things--are there common threads among these issues? For

example, can we define the time for morning prayer as being the time when

the spacecraft (or the side of the planet on which we stand) faces Earth?

Do we use the nearest star instead? The deeper question here is whether the

visibility of the sun is important to a given mitzvah. Although cloud cover

(visibility) does not impact the timing for our daily prayers, it does affect

when we pray Kiddush Levanah and Birchas HaShachar. Another example, the

holidays are based on seasons, yet Jews living south of the equator must keep

them off-season to be consistent with Jerusalem. There are certainly parts of

the globe where 'seasonal change' is of dubious truth. These differences shake

the foundation of the bringing of certain offerings, such as the first-fruits.

People in many places could not perform this mitzvah at all if they relied

upon their local weatherman. Yet since the laws are defined for Israel, and

methods are found that allow others to participate, it seems that physical

location may not affect all the issues. In other words, the common thread

idea doesn't seem to help.

Since many of the problems listed depend on 'time', perhaps next we

should define the term. On Earth, we break up time into increments, each

dependent upon the relative positions of the sun, Earth and moon. One year

is the length of time it takes for the Earth to complete an orbit of the

sun, one month is the period for the moon to complete a cycle, a day is the

spin-rate of the Earth on its axis, etc. What do we base time on once we

are beyond visual link with our solar system?

The only relatively clear distinctions in time are 'before', 'during' and

'after', in other words time is relative to the points being observed. This

is further shown by comparison with two separated observers of one incident: I

see such-and-such happen at 'time 1', but you don't see it until the evening

news at 'time 2'. Time 2 is 'after' to me, but 'during' to you. This

situation is exacerbated by the great differences in observation points in our

discussion of space.

Still, the three relative categories can be applied. I pray the afternoon

service 'before' I pray the evening service, yet 'after' the morning one. It

may lack specificity and fine granularity, but this is consistent without

regard to where one is at the time. Why can this work? We already do much

the same thing: the 25 hours on which I celebrate a given Shabbat are not

coincidental with the 25 hours during which someone on the other side of the

Earth does. If I call him just before candlelighting at my home, he will not

answer the phone, and if he returns the message after Havdalah, I'll be in

the synagogue during Shabbat morning prayers. Yet in both cases the 'before'

and 'after' are consistent around the same Shabbat.

The remaining issues depend on 'place'. Like time, this is a relativity

issue. One can be standing in "Portland", but if he tells his friend on the

phone, the friend still does not know where he is. Is it Oregon? Maine?

England? A place must be relative to another place in order to be considered

a 'place'. I cannot be 'next to something' if that something does not also

have a 'place'. We see that there are three relationships involved:

'near to', 'across from', and 'far from'.

ANSWERS TO OUR TIME AND PLACE ISSUES

------------------------------------

We now know enough to derive answers to all of our questions.

1) Timing for laying tefillin becomes obvious. We put it on immediately

'before' davening the morning service, or any time up until 'during' the

afternoon service. Using tefillin does not drive when holidays occur, but

the reverse, holidays and Shabbat define when not to use tefillin. Thus,

there are no special rules for tefillin beyond what we already have, plus

what we derive for these other timed events.

2) Timing of the three prayer sessions of the day is a little more complex.

See below in the discussion on holidays.

3) The blessing over Torah study is also not difficult. We are commanded

to study Torah "day and night", so our saying this blessing exempts us, in

effect, for the next 24 hours. The issue is when that period begins. To

resolve this we look at the Shavuot rules. Those who stay up all night to

learn only say 'amen' to the various blessings at the beginning of the morning

service, when they are said by someone who did get some sleep. These

blessings are generally said around 5am, which is before actual sunrise. In

our case, the space traveler does not know whether he slept overnight, for

which he would be liable to say these blessings again upon arising in the

'morning', but he can say 'amen' to the blessing of someone who does know.

We thus broadcast from any place on Earth (it does not matter where) these

blessings every few minutes, and the traveler says 'amen'. This leaves only

a question of 'hefsek': is there a delay between the saying of the blessing,

and the answer of 'amen'? The answer to this is clearly 'no', as we see that

our traveler is responding immediately 'after' he hears the blessing, which is

exactly what he would do were he in the same room with the person on Earth.

The time-lapse as the communication channel passes through light-years is

irrelevant to 'before', 'during' and 'after'.

4) In the laws of mourning we face the 'distance category' issue. In the

case of 'interplanetary' travel, word of the loss of a relative can reach the

traveler within minutes. This is certainly more than sufficient, as the laws

on Earth are able to handle both the fact that word does not travel here

during Shabbat or holidays, and that the Torah taught us how to handle the

situation where word of a death took more than a month to arrive. There is

no difference here. In the case of 'intergalactic' travel, one could conceive

of situations where word has to chase the traveler around for periods in

excess of an Earth-year. This would have impact, so we require a deeper look.

Again, though, this is not difficult. The law already exists regarding what

to do when a letter has chased someone around the globe (e.g., during time of

war, time of heavy storm, time of political storm, time of playing hooky),

which may take more than a year. We need here merely observe that if the

information arrives 'during' the year, someone else has already covered the

kaddish, and if it arrives 'after' the year, it doesn't make much difference.

Certainly, if it arrives 'before' the year, something much more complex is

wrong.....

5) Holidays, seasons and months, daily davening, Shabbos, days, hours.

This is the real crux of the problem of space flight for an observant Jew.

Fortunately, most of it can quickly be boiled down to a couple of simple

questions. The occurrence of a holiday relies on the season, the month

and the day. Seasons rely on the relative place of an object with regard

to the polar axis of the Earth. Months rely on days--after 30 we have a

new month regardless of whether we see the new moon. Shabbat relies on

days--it is the seventh in a row, starting from a specific startpoint.

Days rely on hours, which rely on the relative position of an object and

the Earth and sun. If we solve for 'hours', we can solve for the rest.

What is an hour? Nowadays we would quickly respond to that question by

noting it is a one-twenty-fourth part of the time it takes the Earth to

rotate on its axis, give or take a bit. But our Sages of blessed memory

have given us a different formula. Instead of the cesium degeneration

rate used to keep today's atomic clocks synchronized, the Sages taught

that hours were divided by the amount of daylight--there were exactly 12

hours of daylight and exactly 12 hours of darkness every day, wherever

you might find yourself on Earth. Thus, the relative length of an hour

as between someone at the Equator, someone at the North Pole, and someone

at the South Pole could be radically different. These differences would

change during the course of the year depending on the swing of the Earth's

polar axis relative to the sun. Note the repeated use of 'relative' here.

An hour is calculated to mean something at a given physical location at

a given point in time. Change the location or time, and you change the

hour itself. This has proven true with the secular calendar as well,

case in point, George Washington was born February 11, 1731, yet since

1750 we have celebrated his birthday on February 22. He didn't change,

just the relativeness of himself to the calendar.

How does the Sages' concept apply to space? By using the natural body

cycle, it has been shown that humans function best when they operate in

a 30 hour (Earth hour) cycle of work and rest. If you divide those 30

hours into 24 parts, that will define an 'hour'.

This can create a difficulty. On Earth, these hours and their resulting

days would slowly move the cycle of holidays away from their appointed

seasons. But recall, these things are relational--on Earth we are used

to a 24 Earth-hour cycle. Elsewhere, seasons are not relevant so the

change in calendar would not be an issue. This leaves only the difference

between when someone in the Betelgeuse system celebrates a holiday as

compared with someone on Earth doing so. Since the communication system

does not allow for real-time contact, the delays involved are more

confusing that this minor issue, so it is seen as irrelevant. An hour

thus defined, days, months, years, etc., are also defined.

6) The concept of suspended animation is truly theoretical, as it has not

yet been proven possible. If so, then it is still not a difficulty, as we

see in our understanding of the difference in rules applying to different

parts of the Earth at any one point in time. Erev Shabbat in Israel is a

time still allowing for work to be done. If a person there calls someone in

Australia, the latter will not answer the phone because for him it is already

Shabbat. That fact is of no consequence to the one in Israel, in fact it

does not even "exist". Thus, for the one experiencing a given time, laws

apply, but for the one who is not then experiencing that time, the law does

not apply. The crew of a long-trip vessel may be getting older, and may have

to observe numerous laws, but those laws do not apply to anyone not in their

'timezone'. This includes someone who may physically be on the same craft.

Why? The person in Australia is on the same spacecraft as the one in Israel,

'planet Earth'. Physical connection is not the driving force. Thus the one

in suspended animation need not worry about observing mitzvos during the

period in which he is comatose. This is also seen in the laws of a sick

person. 'After' he wakes up, things begin again.

7) Orlah similarly is not a question. On Earth, we need not worry about

the three 'years', only the three 'crops'. Any slight deviation can safely

be ignored as the fourth crop will be during the fourth year, regardless of

whether the third crop crossed the third year by a day or two. In those few

cases where a tree yields more than one crop in a year, the law declares the

multiple crops as one anyway, thus a two-crop-a-year tree would in fact have

six crops prior to the 'fourth year'. Our tree in space (similar to the

teacher or clergy in space programs) will still follow the number of crops,

and we do not worry about ties to the calendar.

8) While we have always learned that the direction we face when we pray

is relevant, there seems to be a disconnect with that understanding and the

way we implement the solution. If you stand within visual range of the

Temple Mount, you point yourself there without any difficulty. If within

the visual range of Jerusalem, same thing. When in the United States or

Canada, you aim "east". But what does that mean? You are looking in a

direction, but you are looking at the house across the street, or the front

row of seats in your shul. You don't see anything relevant. Even worse,

if you are in Australia, you look off toward the horizon, but the closest

direction toward Jerusalem is directly through your feet. The Earth is

round, yet we 'pretend' that by looking toward the eastern horizon we are

somehow looking at the Temple Mount. Actual visual acuity is irrelevant,

actual selection of a direct path is irrelevant. The purpose of this law

has to be in other areas. Our intent and concentration is the same whether

we are actually looking 'east', or merely think we are. The answer to our

question is, "don't ask, don't tell." I might have thought it meant something

else, but we see here the correct understanding.

9) In the days of Esther, man of the 127 provinces outside of Shushan the

capital were 'far from' Shushan, in terms of their travel technology. Their

laws were established as being the same as those provinces that were 'near to'

the capital. The law does not seem to care about the distance. The only

difference came with the 'across from' aspect, that those inside the walled

cities of Shushan and a couple neigboring ones, had special status. Thus we

see that, absent a space outpost that was walled in the days of Joshua, the

rest of space can be compared to the others of the 127 provinces for purposes

of the laws of exile. We see that this would include lands that were only

reachable in those days by ocean, thus a land bridge is not necessary. Space

can be seen as merely a modern-day-technology ocean.

10) This last answer also helps us understand the question about the

percentage of Jews living in the Land of Israel. If space is treated as a

province for purposes of exile, Jews in space must be counted as among those

'far from', not 'near to', nor especially 'in' the Land.

11) Regarding cities of refuge, we can learn the law from the laws of an

embassy. Nations grant a release of their own sovereignty over a small plot

of land on behalf of a neighbor nation to build a permanent embassy. The

host nation has no further claim to it, all law in that territory from that

time forth comes from the tenant nation. A ship carrying the flag of its

home nation receives the same treatment. Therefore, a person wishing to

escape to a city of refuge need merely reach an embassy or ship of such a

city to be considered 'in' that city. Since these city-states would be

expected to maintain a number of such embassies around the universe, and to

run their own shuttles between them, there is no need to delve more deeply

on behalf of the accidental murderer.

12) On the question of tumah, or more specifically, which way is up, we

need only review the 'near to', 'far from', 'across from' trilogy. One who

is above something is near to it. One who is below something is also near

to it. One who is not above or below is far from the object, sufficiently

so for our purposes here. The question boils down to, what if someone is

'next to', but not necessarily above or below? This consitutes 'across

from'. Once again we see that location is relevant to another place. If

one is near to something, yet not above it, that is only because the frame

of reference being used relates them in such a way. Turn the picture 90

degrees, and that 'next to' or 'across from' becomes 'above' or 'below'.

'Near to' results in tumah. 'Far from' does not. The question of 'across

from' remains unsettled. As the difference between 'near to' and 'across

from' in this context is merely the spatial relationship between the

two objects and some non-relevant point (the polar axis of the Earth),

we can learn no law from that non-relevance. Thus, 'across from' must

equate to 'near to' in this example, and 'up' is defined only as between

the two objects, not with respect to a third.

13) We saw in question 8 on the direction we face in prayer that visual

acuity is not relevant in most cases. There is a question when the specific

mitzva is centered around a specific object, such as the blessing of the

new month. It is "preferable" that one be able to see the moon while

praying the Kiddush Levanah prayers. It is not required, and if there is

cloud cover preventing one from seeing the moon during the entire week or

so when this prayer may be said, then one goes ahead even without a visual

sighting. We know that every 28 years, the sun, the star of our home solar

system, returns to the place in the sky where it was upon Creation. Even if

we are looking at it from Earth, we cannot see this fact, so visual is not

relevant here either. There is nothing to stop us from celebrating these

occasions without actually seeing the heavenly body involved. The other issue

here is that the new moon is a trigger for the calendar--it tells us when the

new month begins. This is also not an issue. The Sanhedrin, the great court

in Israel, was able to declare the new month under the laws even when no

witnesses came forth to testify about the moon's appearance. The only concern

is that the process requires a declaration of the 30th day since the last

new moon. For calculating that, see the answer to question 5.

14) The case of bentsching is also easily resolved. The blessing does not

say "for the land which produced this food". If it did, most of the bread we

eat throughout the world would not be qualified for this blessing. It says

instead "for the land AND for the food". Two different reasons. There is no

issue about our being able to fulfill both reasons by making the blessing on

Alpha Centauri with 'locally' grown produce.

15) In the matter of where we take orlah, the answer is again clear. The

law provides that if the distance is too great, one sells the produce, and

takes the money to Jerusalem, buys new food there, and eats it in celebration,

just as is done for 'first fruits'. The issue is not that the food we grow

might not survive the trip from where we are to Jerusalem on Earth, but that

we ourselves might not!

16) Making Aliyah involves a physical relocation, to be sure. But if one

lived on the top of Mt. Everest, and decided to move to Israel, he would not

be increasing his physical distance from the center of the Earth in the

process, in fact the reverse. To move from a distant planet to Israel would

involve a great increase in the same situation. The idea of Aliyah is

primarily spiritual, and that can be effected without regard to the starting

point.

We have addressed all the issues. The key to remember is that, as our

rabbi in space said, "on with the tefillin, off with the tefillin", some

things are just not worth the investment.

Technical translations and clarity provided by HaRav HaGaon Lou Costello.