 | As a comic, Mel Brooks has been cutting edge for decades. As a Jewish comic, Mel Brooks has been as traditional as they come. Amidst all his antics, Mel Brooks and his comedy transmit a core truth: a secret of Jewish continuity and strength always has been remembering where we come from. Modern Jewish astronauts, unfathomable decades ago, have remembered what this week's Torah characters tragically forgot. |
By Rabbi David Evan Markus
Korach 5786 (2026)
There's a powerful link between comic Mel Brooks, Jewish space travel, and Torah's great rebellion against Moses. I promise there is, and it's worth the trip.
1. Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks' 1981 hit movie History of the World Part 1 spoofed Star Wars with his now-famous "Jews in Space" skit. (As if classic midrash, four years earlier, the Muppet Show's Jim Henson launched a "Pigs in Space" skit spoofing Star Wars... so "Jews in Space" spoofed "Pigs in Space" spoofed Star Wars... but I digress.)
What made "Jews in Space" good comedy, like any good comedy, was its kernels of truth. For all its antics, "Jews in Space" refracted the core Jewish narrative of starting somewhere, going somewhere else, and always remembering where we came from.
2. Jewish Space Travel
When actual Jewish astronauts began going into space, Jewish life in Earth orbit attracted deep NASA interest and, before long, museum exhibits at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and the Center for Jewish History, among others. Why?
A June 2026 PBS documentary about real Jewish space travelers, "Fiddler on the Moon," offers two reasons. Like Mel Brooks' "Jews in Space" skit, real Jews in space intently brought their Judaism where no Jew had gone before. When the International Space Station became a Jew's temporary home, a NASA-approved mezuzah went on the door. Jewish astronauts on the Space Shuttle brought a dreidel and hanukkiyah, even if they couldn't light candles in zero gravity. However far from home they traveled, they remembered where they came from – and brought it with them, living Jewishly so the world could see.
Korach 5786 (2026)
There's a powerful link between comic Mel Brooks, Jewish space travel, and Torah's great rebellion against Moses. I promise there is, and it's worth the trip.
1. Mel Brooks
Mel Brooks' 1981 hit movie History of the World Part 1 spoofed Star Wars with his now-famous "Jews in Space" skit. (As if classic midrash, four years earlier, the Muppet Show's Jim Henson launched a "Pigs in Space" skit spoofing Star Wars... so "Jews in Space" spoofed "Pigs in Space" spoofed Star Wars... but I digress.)
What made "Jews in Space" good comedy, like any good comedy, was its kernels of truth. For all its antics, "Jews in Space" refracted the core Jewish narrative of starting somewhere, going somewhere else, and always remembering where we came from.
2. Jewish Space Travel
When actual Jewish astronauts began going into space, Jewish life in Earth orbit attracted deep NASA interest and, before long, museum exhibits at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum and the Center for Jewish History, among others. Why?
A June 2026 PBS documentary about real Jewish space travelers, "Fiddler on the Moon," offers two reasons. Like Mel Brooks' "Jews in Space" skit, real Jews in space intently brought their Judaism where no Jew had gone before. When the International Space Station became a Jew's temporary home, a NASA-approved mezuzah went on the door. Jewish astronauts on the Space Shuttle brought a dreidel and hanukkiyah, even if they couldn't light candles in zero gravity. However far from home they traveled, they remembered where they came from – and brought it with them, living Jewishly so the world could see.
The second reason for such interest about Jews in space was Shabbat. Jewish astronauts would honor Shabbat in orbit. As Ahad Ha-Am (1856-1927) observed, "Even more than Jews kept Shabbat, Shabbat kept the Jews." But how to honor Shabbat on an orbiting spacecraft, from before sunset Friday until after sunset Saturday, when sunset in orbit happens every 90 minutes?
The answer was much the same: always remember where we came from. Jews first faced altered sunsets when they reached the Arctic: how to honor Shabbat if there's midnight sun or months of darkness? Their answer was to choose their most recent proximate place with regular sunsets, then time Jewish life there. For polar Alaska, do Seattle.
Shabbat aboard the Space Shuttle and International Space Station would time to Mission Control in Houston, where they came from. They sang Shabbat kiddush on Texas time.
3. Torah's Rebellion: The Peril of Spiritual Amnesia
Partway through the Book of Numbers, our ancestors were weary of wandering and feeble in faith. Sick of it all, the kohein Korach led an attempted rebellion against Moses (Num. 16:1-14).
Even as some railed against Moses and his leadership, their real beef was with God. Bearing life's hurts and consequences of their own missteps, they didn't remember where they came from (Egyptian bondage), their miraculous liberation, the ballast of the sacred amidst them, the superhuman effort it took to lead them despite constant bickering. The rebels saw only the bad, they didn't like where they were, and they lashed out with cruelty and shaming.
Their amnesia of their history's true meaning did not go well. Their violence begat violence. Slander begat slander. A vast swath of the community met its end because people forgot the spiritual truths of who they really were. They forgot where they came from.
The answer was much the same: always remember where we came from. Jews first faced altered sunsets when they reached the Arctic: how to honor Shabbat if there's midnight sun or months of darkness? Their answer was to choose their most recent proximate place with regular sunsets, then time Jewish life there. For polar Alaska, do Seattle.
Shabbat aboard the Space Shuttle and International Space Station would time to Mission Control in Houston, where they came from. They sang Shabbat kiddush on Texas time.
3. Torah's Rebellion: The Peril of Spiritual Amnesia
Partway through the Book of Numbers, our ancestors were weary of wandering and feeble in faith. Sick of it all, the kohein Korach led an attempted rebellion against Moses (Num. 16:1-14).
Even as some railed against Moses and his leadership, their real beef was with God. Bearing life's hurts and consequences of their own missteps, they didn't remember where they came from (Egyptian bondage), their miraculous liberation, the ballast of the sacred amidst them, the superhuman effort it took to lead them despite constant bickering. The rebels saw only the bad, they didn't like where they were, and they lashed out with cruelty and shaming.
Their amnesia of their history's true meaning did not go well. Their violence begat violence. Slander begat slander. A vast swath of the community met its end because people forgot the spiritual truths of who they really were. They forgot where they came from.
* * *
People lose their way. Whole societies lose their way. Often it's because people forget core values or stop living them, distracted by pain or fear or base instincts. We forget who we are.
One of Judaism's superpowers is the right kind of memory. Amidst all the many ways to do Jewish, in all our theological and practical diversity, all Jewishness roots in tangible ancestral memory of where we came from and how history inspires who we must be. This memory is not just about facts but also about the core values that experience is supposed to teach us such as kindness, altruism, integrity, perspective and community.
We are former slaves, carriers of empathy, children of light. Our history has inspired our people to overcome long odds, make deserts bloom, and love boldly. It is only because we remember where we come from that we ever can be faithful to who we are – and who we called to be.
One of Judaism's superpowers is the right kind of memory. Amidst all the many ways to do Jewish, in all our theological and practical diversity, all Jewishness roots in tangible ancestral memory of where we came from and how history inspires who we must be. This memory is not just about facts but also about the core values that experience is supposed to teach us such as kindness, altruism, integrity, perspective and community.
We are former slaves, carriers of empathy, children of light. Our history has inspired our people to overcome long odds, make deserts bloom, and love boldly. It is only because we remember where we come from that we ever can be faithful to who we are – and who we called to be.
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