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Nissan Ratzlav-Katz is Opinion Editor for Arutz Sheva's Israel National News.com. More of his work can be seen at .
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By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
February 11, 2003
Colonel Ilan Ramon was a hero in so many ways. As a pilot in the Israeli air force, he voluntarily flew in the most dangerous position in the eight-plane formation that bombed the Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, preventing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein from building nuclear weapons as early as twenty years ago. As payload specialist on the space shuttle Columbia, he, along with his six American colleagues, was a fearless explorer, in the spirit of Christopher Columbus. Based on his public persona, we can only assume that, to his family, he was a hero in ways that will forever remain their cherished, private recollections. To the Jewish world, he was a hero of still another sort. A hero and a pioneer.
Ilan Ramon was not the first Jew in space. He was not even the first Jew on a space shuttle. Nor, to our great sadness, was he the first Jew to die as part of a NASA mission. Yet, as a proud Israeli, he represented something that the other 'Jews in space' could not have. As the son of immigrants who had returned to our ancient homeland, he represented the eternity and continuity of the Jewish people. And he did so consciously and with great sensitivity.
While speaking from the space shuttle by live video link-up to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Israeli people, Ramon surprised many when he displayed a tiny Torah scroll. It was one of several personal items that he was allowed by NASA to bring along on his voyage into space. The scroll, which had survived the Holocaust, symbolized "more than anything the ability of the Jewish people to survive everything, including horrible periods, and go from the darkest days to days of hope and faith in the future," Ramon told a rapt earth-bound audience. A similar message was also broadcast, although in a more subtle fashion, by the Israeli flag that Ilan carried with him into orbit.
Ilan Ramon was acutely aware not only of Jewish continuity, but also of Jewish unity. As he once explained, when asked about his intention to observe kashrut and Shabbat on board the Columbia, "This is symbolic. I thought it would be nice to represent all kinds of Jews, including religious ones." When the shuttle passed over Jerusalem, Ramon recited the Shma Yisrael, the quintessential Jewish liturgical text and statement of faith. Later, the text took on another, unexpected, meaning, as well. The words of the Shma are traditionally recited by those who know they are about to die.
Yet, as the Israeli son of a refugee father from Germany, who fought in Israel's War of Independence, and a mother who survived Auschwitz, Ilan represented the triumph of return and rebirth over exile and destruction.
As astronauts, all the fallen members of the Columbia crew, and Ilan among them, represent the triumph of life over death. The people of Israel and America, although perhaps often reminded of our connections in death, are truly a force for life in the world. It was American scientists who were able and willing to send a mission into space in order to carry out experiments for the sake of life. And it was Israeli scientists who designed some of those life-improving experiments.
In the classic work of our sages, Pirkei Avot, good deeds are likened to the roots of a tree and wisdom to its leaves. Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah says that a man whose good deeds are many is analogous to a tree (in Hebrew: Ilan) "whose roots are numerous, so that even if all the winds in the world were to come and blow against it, they could not move it from its place..." Like Rabbi Elazar's tree, no wind that came his way made Ilan lose his bearings. Even in the void of outer space, or in hostile Iraqi airspace, he remained firmly rooted in his land, among his people and in his history. His Jewish rootedness not only withstood all the winds of time and space, but, over the last few years - and even more so over the last month - he has influenced many other Jews to take pride in their own identity.
May we all be able to fully embrace the values embodied by Ilan Ramon, the astronaut, the Israeli air force colonel and, above all, the Jew.
Views expressed by the author do not
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