In 1968, during a tumultuous time both in our nation and in the world, the Whole Earth Catalog published pictures of the earth that have since become iconic. These color pictures of our entire, round planet, taken by NASA satellite, were meant to inspire us and shift our perspective. These images did more than show us the earth – they invited a moral and spiritual shift in how we see ourselves and our responsibility to each other.
Stewart Brand, the creator of the catalogue, after a psychedelic trip, thought that these pictures – seeing the whole planet so dramatically and differently – would unite human consciousness. Those images helped to spark the environmental movement – from Earth Day, established in 1970 to landmark protections for our air and water. However, the deeper transformation Brand imagined, uniting our human consciousness, has remained elusive.
The beautiful pictures of the earth, especially the 1972 photograph known as The Blue Marble, taken by the crew of Apollo 17 on their way to the moon for what was to be the last lunar mission of the 20th century, captured our attention. The image filled us with pride in human achievement, and at the same time, gave us a sobering awareness of how fragile and interconnected life on this planet truly is, and how easily and quickly it can be eliminated by destructive forces of our making.
In 1969, from the Oval Office, President Richard Nixon said to the astronaut Neil Armstrong who had landed on the surface of the moon
As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to earth. For one priceless moment in the whole history of humanity, all the people on this earth are truly one – one in their pride in what you have done.
Gazing at this photo and the extraordinary photos that have come since – from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Webb Space Telescope, and now from the crew of Artemis II – we may experience what is called the Overview Effect, which is a feeling that many of the astronauts got when seeing the earth from afar, seeing our only home as a small, vulnerable blue sphere, alone and exposed in the vastness of the dark cosmos.
I think about this as we cheer on the Artemis II mission, which consists of four astronauts who are participating in the first crewed mission beyond low earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972. They launched just before the beginning of Pesach. The Orion capsule is expected to fly past the moon and then return to earth in a ten-day mission, now in less than a week. God willing, they will be successful in their experiments and in their objectives. Already, images of the earth have been sent back, echoing that Blue Marble photograph, hopefully reigniting and cultivating awe as we again see how majestic and how tenuous we are orbiting in the expanse of space.
Our holy Torah gives us a grounding for this extraordinary mission as well. In a difficult time, after the debacle of the Golden Calf, Moses pleads for a different perspective, a new way to see the world. His view is now dim, as he manages the disappointment of leading people who do not share his zeal and his yirat shamayim, his passion for reverence before God and the importance of transforming the awareness of God’s presence into ethical and noble conduct.
Moses is bold in his ambition and in his yirat shamayim. He plainly asks God: “hareini na et kvodecha – now show me Your Glory.” And God does. In a matter of speaking, God takes Moses up into a space capsule and grants him his own overview. God shows him the ineffable grandeur of the Divine. He sees a perspective that very few have seen before or since. Moses experiences the Overview Effect, a reordering of perspective and a renewed passion to work for the betterment of his people and the world, even as he recognizes how steep the climb to success can be. He is high up in a cleft in a rock, he sees the apparition of God, and his whole perspective changes.
Moses is left with a vision that inspires him for the rest of his life. He is keen to establish ground rules and safety signs that keep the Children of Israel on track. He strives to move past the failure of the Golden Calf incident. Once he has his groove back, once he has this apparition and he is inspired anew, he seeks to safeguard the sacredness of the mission of following God and bringing the people to enter into the Promised Land. His is nothing short of a mystical vision – a vision that sustains him in his difficult work and gives him clarity of perspective to lead, even without certainty.
How are we to experience the Overview Effect? We can look at astonishing pictures of our planet and of the universe. We can pursue questions of our existence that call into question our conception of space and time. We can practice rituals that get us into a different headspace (perhaps what would be called a “heart space”), where we reorder our priorities and see that our one wild and precious life is not meant to exploit, hurt, or amass. As we link Moses’ experience in the cleft of the rock with the beautiful and aspirational text of Shir haShirim, we are reminded of the power of love, awe, and wonder that infuse our world and that we are encouraged to pursue.
What would it be like to pursue the vision of Stewart Brand and strive to unite human consciousness? Is that a daring dream, or an inestimable folly? Can we just go halfway instead, setting up guardrails that keep us on track to apprehend consciousness, all the while minimizing the risk of our blowing each other up? It is hard to say if we are in a Golden Calf moment now. Perhaps we are in a variation of it – in danger of giving up on our leaders, thinking that they will not return to a place where they put the needs of the community over self-interest. It is we, not they, that need a moment in the cleft of the rock – to see the glory of the Divine pass by and to hear the music of the universe, or as the ancient philosopher Pythagoras called it, Musica Universalis, the Music of the Spheres. We may not be worshiping a calf – but we do know what it is like to lose faith in leadership, in community, and in each other. The Torah’s answer is not withdrawal, but perspective and focus.
We are to gain a firm foothold in endurance as we live through this most uncertain time with unreliable leaders. We are to hold fast to the belief that there is something greater than just getting ours while participating in a pact that keeps us alive only because we recognize a mutually assured destruction. It’s a weird and hard place to live. I encourage you, after Shabbat is over, to devote some time looking at the images of the earth and of space taken both by satellites and the human eye, over the years. May we be overcome with wonder.
I encourage us to dream again about the miracle of our life, as we see it from a different perspective. Maybe the next time you get on a airplane, request a window seat and keep your camera handy. Maybe in our spiritual practices we can echo Moses’ request and set an intention – hareini na et kvodecha – and we can then be prepare for what might transpire. And perhaps our next spiritual action, or next Jewish ritual in our home or in the synagogue, we can consider it to be as important as a revived space mission to the moon.
In the Artemis II mission, we may be priming the pump for setting foot on the moon again, or preparing for points beyond. We may be learning how to extract minerals from meteors. But in this moment, when we see the earth from afar again, when our imagination is fired again, let us live with wonder, and for a moment, live outside of ourselves – seeing ourselves as concerned strangers, seeing the cosmic world as our birthright. In doing so, past the wreckage of our current challenges and the molten calves strewn all around us, in defiance and in generous reaction, we can cause our compassion, our empathy, our solicitude, and our love to flow, and thus live differently on this earth after all.
Moadim l’Simcha
Shabbat Shalom.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Besorot Tovot.
(This post is part of Sinai and Synapses’ project Scientists in Synagogues, a grass-roots program to offer Jews opportunities to explore the most interesting and pressing questions surrounding Judaism and science. Neil Blumofe is Rabbi at Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin, TX. This sermon is from Hol HaMoed Pesach on April 4).
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