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When I Wish Upon a Planet


Question:

Hello. With Elon Musk working to bring a million people to Mars in the next 40-100 years, I was wondering why there is no mention of any of the planets other than Earth in the Torah. If the other planets aren't important, why create them in the first place? But if they are important, why not mention them in the beginning of the Torah when describing the creation of the universe? Thank you in advance for your response!



AskTheRabbi.org answered:

Interesting question! The answer is that they are mentioned.  Genesis 1:16 states, “And God made the two great luminaries: the great luminary to rule the day and the lesser luminary to rule the night, and the stars.” Although it may sound that this does not include the planets in our solar system, this is not the case. The Hebrew word for “stars” in this verse is “kochavim,” which means “planets” as well as “stars.” Therefore, the planets are mentioned in the verse which says that God made the "kochavim."

Furthermore, all heavenly and earthly creations are summed up with the verse "The Heavens and the Earth and all their array (meaning everything within them) were finished." (Gen. 2:1) This refers to the planets as well as all other heavenly bodies. Although names of various planets other than ours, eretz, are not specified in the written Torah, at least some of them do appear by name in the Talmud and other works of the Oral Law.

Regarding the purpose of the creation of the vast number of planets, stars and other objects in the sky, I hope to address this matter in a future column. And regarding the question of whether there is life on other planets, I suggest seeing a previously answered question called “Alien Life” http://www.asktherabbi.org/DisplayQuestion.asp?ID=37384


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