Since man has landed on the moon, does that make any change in any of our attitudes?
ANSWER:
No. The moon is actually the backyard of the earth. When people were not so accustomed to traveling, to go to Long Island meant a trip of exploration. It's like the woman who was born on the East Side and she lived there all her life, and one day she took a trip to Long Island, and she said, "Now I see how big America is!"
There were a lot of people in small towns in Europe who never left the confines of their town. In fact, in England there's a place called Sunderland, and there's a mountain, and across the mountain there's another town, the people on the two sides of the mountain in the two villages speak a different dialect entirely, because there's no communication. So people are bound by their environment.
The truth is, the earth has a satellite; the moon is our backyard, that's all it is. Therefore it doesn't make the slightest change in any of our attitudes, in any of our ceremonials; everything continues. The truth is that when they discovered America it was even a more startling discovery. Visiting the moon was a smaller breakthrough than the discovery of the American continent.
When people will eventually travel in spaceships to take their vacation on Mars-it'll be in a specially built construction with artificial atmosphere, but there will be people who will have enough money to waste on that. There will be travel bureaus that will spring up on every corner advertising the imaginary glories of a trip to Mars… of course when you come there you will find that it's nothing but bills; it costs money that's all.
The best place to live is right here on the earth-like the best place to live is right here in New York City. Don't let them tell you anything else, wherever you will go you will discover that. Despite the taxes and everything else, this is the best place to be. If you disagree with me, that's my humble opinion.
Good Shabbos To All
This is transcribed from questions that were posed to Harav Miller by the audience at the Thursday night lectures.
To listen to the audio of this Q & A please dial: 201-676-3210
Important Numbers
