They don’t much care for having their path blocked by a mountain and so they climb it for no reason other than finding out what’s on the other side. Questing species don’t much care for being stuck on one side of an ocean and so they climb aboard boats-indeed they invent boats-to cross it. Then we surely must accept that we’re a questing species. We accept that we’re an artistic and inventive and idiosyncratic species. Now that we’ve established that, let’s stipulate the opposite: Space is precisely where the human species ought to be going. Still want the adventure of going to space? That’s what they make movies for.

So stand down the rockets, take down the space centers, pocket the money and let’s move on. It’s dangerous and hideously expensive too, a budget-busting luxury that policy makers and administrators have spent decades trying to defend-always unsuccessfully because the fact is, there’s no practical defense for it.

It does nothing to feed us, to clothe us, to protect us, to heal us. If we can again be one community today, Jerusalem will again be one, and be ours forever.Let’s stipulate one thing: there’s absolutely no reason for us to go to space. If we would had somehow remained one community two thousand years ago, Jerusalem and the Bais HaMikdash would have never been destroyed. If you are on the other side of the river, then you’ve gone too far. We are all entitled to our own space in Judaism. Moshe was listening to the Churban Beis HaMikdash. He listened to the plans for the first breakaway minyan. Moshe saw before him the first major division in Israel. They just wanted to start their own community with like minded relatives and be left alone. They just didn’t want to be part of the Jewish people. They had no interest in mutinying or revolting. They had no problem with G-d or with Torah and had nothing personal with Moshe. Now, for the first time in history, a group came to Moshe and said, “We want out”. We had ups and we had downs, but it all took place within the framework of Klal Yisroel. The answer is that somehow, until this point in the history of the new Jewish people, even when we sinned we did so as a people.

Why did this request set off something in Moshe beyond any response that we have ever seen? He threatened them and nearly cursed them. According to one Medrash he scolded them for three days straight. “Can we please stay on this side of the Jordan where there will be plenty of room for us?” Moshe lost his cool. Yet, when the leaders of two of the tribes of Israel, Gad and Reuven, voiced a request. Despite the historical implications of the Jewish behavior, our Rebbe Moshe somehow always understood the people and where possible defended them. He had dealt with a rebellion against his leadership and he had fought against the spies for the honor of the land of Israel. He had listened to them audaciously complain against G-d when they didn’t like the taste of the Manna. He had watched his people betray G-d as they built the Golden Calf. Working with other people seems to complicate matters.īy the time the Jewish people in the desert were up to Matos-Masai, Moshe had already had his share of difficult moments and disappointments with Klal Yisroel. There has always been a voice like this within our own hearts. The people are too rich, too machmir, too lenient, too Jewish, too gentile – like… we love you, we wish you well, we bless you - but we can’t live with you. Throughout history there has always been a voice like this in the Jewish community. “We will remain on this side of the Jordan and not enter Eretz Yisroel.” We are willing to support you, teach you, do business with you we’ll even fight in your wars! But we need our own space.” These were the words of the leaders of Gad and Reuvein. “We love Torah and we love G-d, but we can’t live together with the rest of the Jewish people.

We need our space in time in time