Much to my delight, via the BBC, a new planet has been discovered :
"There is a new class of planet out there that astronomers are calling the "mega-Earth".It is an object with a hard surface like our own world but much, much bigger.The necessity for the new designation follows the discovery of a planet which has a mass some 17 times that of Earth.Known as Kepler-10c, it orbits a star about 560 light-years away."
What is fascinating about this discovery is that this is a planet (see picture below) which is twice the diameter of the earth, which makes it the size of a mini gas giant, but because of its mass, means it is more likely to be a rocky planet like earth, than a gas giant like Jupiter or Neptune (technically you could call Neptune an 'ice giant'). And if the planet is earth like, then there may be life there. Of course with a strong gravity on the planet, life would be very different to that which we are used to on earth, but it could be life nonetheless. Whilst we as Orthodox Jews believe that "This, The Torah of Moses, shall not be abrogated, nor shall there be any other Torah from G-d save it", we are also comfortable with science,except some of our more strident Haredi, who aren't really the only authentic voice of Orthodoxy, but a new brand of Judaism dating back only 200 years ago. Indeed Moses Maimonides went so far in the preface to his book 'Guide for the Perplexed' : "Knowledge of the Divine cannot be attained except through knowledge of the natural sciences."
Orthodox Rabbi (who was also a physicists) Aryeh Kaplan, who was quite comfortable with the idea of extra terrestrial life, an argument of his is here. It also seems that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, had no such problems with the idea of extra terrestrial life. To me I read that in Genesis G-d creates the stars and the universe (Genesis 1, 16 "He also made the stars"). Why should extraterrestrial life, therefore, be in contradiction to the Torah?
But what do readers think ? Is this idea Biblical and in line with Torah or is this heresy? And if life does exist on other planets, are there other 'chosen' people out there? Or would alien life forms be required to follow some form of the seven laws of Noah?
As we celebrate each week our Shabbat and our festivals the most recent, Shavuot, celebrated the giving of the divine Torah to our people from a mountain 4,000 years ago, is there not room for one further revelation or miracle in creation ?
As we celebrate each week our Shabbat and our festivals the most recent, Shavuot, celebrated the giving of the divine Torah to our people from a mountain 4,000 years ago, is there not room for one further revelation or miracle in creation ?
[these were some of the things we ended up discussing at midnight during Friday Shabbos night; amazing when 5 Jews, 2 agnostics and 1 Anglican all get together, drink and think!]
I'll leave people to think and comment, but my last thought is again from the Rambam :
" For although we believe that God created the Universe from nothing, most of our wise and learned men believe that the Creation was not the exclusive result of His will; but His wisdom, which we are unable to comprehend, made the actual existence of the Universe necessary. The same unchangeable wisdom found it as necessary that non-existence should precede the existence of the Universe. Our Sages frequently express this idea in the explanation of the words, "He hath made everything beautiful in his time"
& here is Psalm 104:
"How manifold are Your deeds, O L-rd"
Over to you guys as always,
Love H (:
