Landing on the Moon - Part 3

00:00 Behemsach, in continuation to the earlier installments in regards to the landing on the moon, we continue now with installment number three, discussing the Rebbe's remarks, Erev Habrengen, on Shabbos, Parshah Vayigash, which was December 28th, 1968. And in this sicha, the Rebbe discussed the, uh, flight and orbit around the moon. Just a background, the Lubavitch community in Crown Heights holds periodic encounter with Chabad, quote-unquote, weekends, in which Yidden of all backgrounds stay with Hasidic families and attend lectures and workshops on Jewish thought and practice. And the Rebbe said the following, "Yesterday, an event took place that had no known precedent in human history. A manned spacecraft approached the moon, orbited it several times, photographed both its light side and its dark side, and returned safely to Earth at the exact time and place that were programmed. The Baal Shem Tov taught us that from everything a person sees or hears, he must derive a lesson in the service of his Creator. Indeed, this event and its every aspect and detail is full with instructive insights into our mission in life. Some twenty-four hours before the conclusion of the space mission, another event took place. A question was posed at an encounter session, a question that the said space mission can help address. A participant in the encounter challenged one of the speakers. And he said the following, 'I understand that under Torah law, if a person eats a bite of non-kosher food, the penalty is malkus. I think that what a person eats is his own

02:22 business. Laws should forbid and penalize actions that are harmful to others and to society, but should stay out of a person's private life.' The Rebbe continues that the rabbi conducting this session was quite flustered by the question. How to explain to a room full of young people raised in free and democratic America the fact that for an act as harmless and personal as eating a bite of food, the Torah instructs that a person receive malkus. After a while , the speaker came out with a standard apologetic reply that in order for a transgression to be punishable by malkus, it must be committed in the presence of two witnesses, that these two witnesses must first warn the transgressor of the criminality of his deed and of the penalty it carries, that the transgressor must commit the deed within seconds of the above warning. Thus, due to these and a host of other stipulations, this penalty was rarely, if ever, actually carried out. It might therefore be said that the Torah-mandated pun-punishment of malkus is more an indicator of the severity of the transgression than an operative penal procedure." The Rebbe begins to elaborate. All this is of course true, but it doesn't really answer the question. Even if the penalty of malkus was administered but once in a hundred years, does the deed warrant such punishment? And why does the Torah legislate such a gross intrusion into a person's private life? But our sages tell us that a person is obligated to say, "The entire world

04:25 was created for my sake." In the words of Maimonides, a person should always see himself as half meritorious and half guilty, and the entire world as half meritorious and half guilty, so that when he transgresses one transgression, he tips the balance for himself and for the entire world to the side of guilt and causes it destruction. And when he does a single mitzvah, he tips the balance for himself and for the entire world to the side of merit and causes salvation for himself and for the entire world. Ingesting a spiritually toxic bite of food is not a harmless act, nor is it a personal one. All of creation is deeply affected by our every thought, word, and deed, for the better or, God forbid, for the worse. What greater crime can there be than for a person to knowingly jeopardize his own well-being and that of his family, community, and the entire world because of his taste buds prefer a non-kosher piece of meat over a kosher one? This is what is written in the books. The nature of the human being, however, is that things are more readily understood and accepted when he or she sees a tangible example of it. By divine providence, we have such an example in the space mission concluded yesterday, which was December 27th. Three adult men were told to put aside all personal preferences and follow a set of guidelines that dictated their every behavior, including their most intimate habits. They were told exactly what, how much, and

06:21 when to eat, when and what position to sleep, and what shoes to wear. Should any of them have challenged this dictatorial regimen, he would have been reminded that one billion dollars have been invested in their endeavor. Now, one billion dollars commands a lot of respect. Never mind it is not his billion. It is on-only Uncle Sam's billion. Still, when a person is told that one billion dollars are at stake, he will conform to all guidelines and instructions. Of course, he has no idea how most of these instructions relate to the success of his mission. That has been determined by gray-haired scientists after many years of research, but he will take their word for it and readily accept the extensive intrusion into his private affairs. The Rebbe concludes, "And what if at stake is not a billion-dollar scientific project, but the divine purpose in creation?" The mitzvot shall continue in the next installment.