It's hard to believe that ten years have passed since the Columbia disaster.  We look back and reflect on what has happened in our own lives, and what has transpired for our nation and world over the last decade.  The anniversary creates an opportunity to remember that moment in time, and consider what has happened since.  Most importantly, it allows us to once again honor the bravery and sacrifice of scientists and explorers of the modern period.  Below is a piece I wrote the day the shuttle exploded as it returned to Earth.

Join us this Friday night, February 1st, at 8 pm for a special tribute to the shuttle astronauts at our Shabbat Service.  (Tot Shabbat, our monthly early service, will be at 6:30 pm as usual, ending just before)

Reflections on a Hero
By Rabbi Mark Blazer

On January 16th I stood in awe watching the Space Shuttle Columbia blast off into space.  Nearly 4 miles from the launch site, I was surrounded by family and friends of the astronauts on board STS-107. All of us had the same prayer--that we would not bear witness to a tragedy like Challenger. We were so relieved when the ascent was flawless.  Through the loudspeakers we heard Houston assume flight control signaling that the initial danger period was over.  We breathed a collective sigh of relief.

And now, 16 days later, our world has lost seven heroes. In an instant, the expectant joy at their safe return, has turned to sorrow and mourning.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the crew, Rick Husband, William McCool, Mike Anderson, Dave Brown, Kulpana Chawla, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon.

Thanksgiving, November 28, our family sat together with the Ramons around my father’s table.  We talked about American history, as well as our future.  Exactly seven weeks later, Col. Ilan Ramon would be taking off into space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia.  After so many delays, years of training and waiting, the mission looked like it was finally going ahead. The last few days in Los Angeles allowed the Ramon family to unwind before the inevitable stress of the days ahead. 

Ilan was a natural optimist.  His eldest son recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah in Houston, and they expected to celebrate his next eldest son’s Bar Mitzvah back in Israel.  He was looking forward to reuniting with family and friends after being separated for years. Ilan was especially inspired by his mother, a survivor of Auschwitz.  She had instilled within him hope for the future. “Probably the fact that I’m the son of a Holocaust survivor is even more symbolic” than usual. “I’m proof that even with all the hard times we are going forward.”

After dinner as we sat talking, a movie was playing in the background, though no one was really paying attention.  It was 2010: The Year We Make Contact.  A scene with Roy Scheider attending to some disaster aboard his spacecraft, fires and explosions, suddenly grabbed our attention.  Ilan’s wife Rona, not missing a beat remarked, “We don’t think about such things.”

Ilan was a soldier who had a long history of placing his life at risk, defending his country numerous times since taking to the skies in the early 70’s.  A 19 year old pilot flying combat missions during the Yom Kippur War; a teenager, yet already a hero.

Col. Ramon took this last mission seriously, and was deeply honored to be Israel’s first astronaut.  But he confided in me that he felt that he had already played a significant role in history. Some twenty-one years earlier he was one of the pilots who destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq.  He had helped protect the entire planet from possible nuclear war.

And at the end of the evening as we said goodbye, I wished him nesiah tova, a safe journey, the Hebrew bon voyage.  I realized this was the first time I had ever said these words to someone going up into space.  How different this was from the usual journeys we humans take around our planet. These flights into space have come to seem routine as well.  They of course are not.  They are a testament to the extent of our capabilities, as well as our limitations. A journey into space is the pinnacle of human achievement, but still a reflection of the fragility of our existence.

See related story from Beliefnet.com:
www.beliefnet.com/News/2003/02/Seven-Heroes-Seven-Faiths.aspx

            Purim, falls on the fourteenth of the Hebrew month of Adar, the fifteenth in Jerusalem. It is a celebration of the events described in the Scroll of Esther. The holiday with its joyous carnival-like atmosphere focuses on one of the main themes in Jewish history, the survival of the Jewish people despite the attempts of their enemies to destroy them. According to the Scroll of Esther, the name Purim is derived from the lot, Pur, cast by Haman to determine the day on which the Jews would be exterminated (Esther 3:7).
           The story of Purim is about hunger for power and about hatred born of the Jews' refusal to assimilate and their unwillingness to compromise religious principle by bowing before the secular authority. It is an old story. However, it has been repeated many times, making it both an ancient and modern story.
           In the story it is related that Mordechai, Esther's cousin, refused to bow before Haman, the vizier of King Ahashverosh. So infuriated was Haman that he sought the annihilation of the Jewish people. Haman's accusation against the Jewish people has become the paradigm for all anti-Semites: "There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples . . . their laws are different from those of other people, they do not obey the king's law, and the king should not tolerate them" (Esther 3:8). The prudent actions of Mordechai and the courage of Esther averted tragedy.
           Purim recalls the dangers of minority status. Hatred of the foreigner and the stranger is still prevalent throughout the world. Anti-Semitism has not disappeared, but despite everything, the Jewish people have survived. Purim, however, is most of all a happy story--a story of survival and triumph over evil.
           The Scroll of Esther/Megillat Esther, is one of the five scrolls contained in the Ketuvim or Hagiographa (Song of Songs/Shir ha-Shirim, Ruth, Lamentations/Eicha, Ecclesiastes/Kohelet and Esther).  Each of the five Megillot is connected with a Jewish holiday or a remembrance day (Shir ha-Shirim to Pesach; Ruth to Shavuot; Eicha to Tisha Be-Av; Kohelet to Sukkot; Esther to Purim). Here, too, the Book of Esther is unique. All the other Megillot were attributed to the holiday subsequently, and the existence and the mitzvot of the holiday are in no way tied to the Megillah, whereas the Book of Esther is the basis of Purim. Take the reading of the Megillah away from Purim, and you have taken away its principal content and nature.
           Megillat Esther is replete with irony. It differs entirely in style from the rest of the Bible. Megillat Esther, is riddled with humor - hidden laughter, concealed within open laughter. God's name is not mentioned even once in this book.
           The Book of Esther is very similar in style and substance to the stories found in the Apocrypha, books which were not included in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanach.  Tobit, Judith and Susannah are all works that we have studied, or will be studying in our Tuesday morning class, held each week at 9 am.  Join us to read these seldom read, but exciting and entertaining tales, written by Jews, but not included in our Bible.
  And don’t miss us for our Purim Carnival Sunday, February 24 from 11 am-3pm at Temple Beth Ami.  We look forward to seeing you on Saturday night, February 23, at 7 pm as we celebrate with our special Megillah Madness and Purim Celebration.  Pizza and drinks, many, many different kinds of drinks, will be served.

Be Happy it’s Adar,
Rabbi Mark Blazer