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Aliens, Presidents and the Oneness of G-D: A Torah Response to Political Speculation

by Ram ben Ze'ev


Alien Reading Tanakh Enroute to Earth
Alien Reading Tanakh Enroute to Earth

An American news-cycle can turn a throwaway line into a “revelation” in under an hour, and the past few days have been a perfect case-study. Barack Obama made a remark that sounded like “confirmation”, President Trump reacted as though classified boundaries had been crossed, and then the story escalated into talk of releasing files. Before anyone asks what this means for Torah, it is worth saying plainly that none of this is a substitute for evidence, and none of it should be treated as theology.


A political statement is not a scientific finding. A former president has no obligation to be precise, and a current president has every incentive to dominate the headlines. Even when leaders speak sincerely, they also speak strategically. So the first layer to unpack is simply this: Obama may have been speaking colloquially about probability, Trump may have been riffing about classification rules, and the public may be doing what it always does—hearing certainty where there was none.


A Torah lens begins in a different place. A Torah lens begins with One Creator. A Torah lens begins with the fact that the universe is not “empty space” to be filled with meaning by human speculation, but a created reality sustained at every moment by the will of G-D. The question is not, “Would extraterrestrial life destroy emunah?” The question is, “Why would it?” If anything exists anywhere, it exists only because G-D created it, sustains it, and gives it purpose.


A Torah lens also already contains language that comfortably exceeds our everyday imagination. A Torah lens speaks in terms of עולמות (olamot – worlds), and in terms of מדרגות (madregot – spiritual levels), and in terms of beings that are not human—מלאכים (malachim – angels) and other categories of created consciousness. A Torah lens does not require that all creation look like us, live like us, or be accountable to mitzvot in the way we are.


A Talmud lens even uses expressions that many people seize upon when discussing “other worlds”. A Talmud lens in עבודה זרה (Avodah Zarah) speaks about G-D “riding” and “moving” through eighteen thousand “worlds” in the night hours. A careful reader understands that חזל (Chazal – Our Sages of blessed memory) are not giving a NASA briefing; חזל are revealing scale, sovereignty, and the impossibility of reducing creation to what the human eye can hold. The point is not to map those “worlds” with telescopes, but to humble the mind and enlarge the heart: creation is vast, and G-D is not local.


A Holy Zohar lens goes further still. A Holy Zohar lens speaks in the language of concealed realms, chambers, levels, and spiritual structures that are real even when they are not physical. A Holy Zohar lens trains a Jew to stop thinking that “real” means “material”, and to stop thinking that “unseen” means “non-existent”. So even if one day it were proven that there are physical beings elsewhere in the material universe, that would not be a shockwave to Torah. It would be one more footnote in the already-established truth that creation is multi-layered, ordered, and purposeful.


A Tanya lens makes the foundation even firmer. A Tanya lens insists that nothing has independent existence from G-D, and that the vitality of every created thing is continuously drawn from the Divine. A Tanya lens teaches that the deeper the creation, the more it should push a person toward ביטחון (bitachon – trust in G-D) and toward awe, rather than toward panic. So the question “What about G-D?” is, from a Tanya standpoint, almost inverted: the more expansive the universe appears, the less plausible it becomes to imagine randomness as an ultimate explanation.


A Rebbe’s lens, in the Lubavitcher tradition, has addressed this in a practical and memorable way. A Rebbe’s lens does not fear inquiry, and it does not fear discovery. The Lubavitcher Rebbe was asked—directly—about the possibility of life on other planets in the context of scientific work connected to the search for life, and his answer did not treat the question as heresy. His answer treated it as a matter that does not threaten Torah at all, because Torah never claimed that the only created beings are humans, and Torah never limited G-D’s creative power to a single planet. His emphasis, as reported by those who asked, was that Torah is about the purpose of man and the obligation placed upon the Jewish people, and that scientific exploration does not rewrite that purpose.


Some years ago, I wrote: “Torah is not man’s book about G-D, but G-D’s book about man.” It is Divine instruction directed to humanity, and specifically to ישראל (Yisrael – the Jewish people), revealing our mission within this world. From a Torah perspective, therefore, the existence of other beings in other realms would not challenge Torah in the slightest. On the contrary, it would be entirely consistent to say that just as we have been given a Divine “book” that defines our purpose, so too any other created intelligence would exist under the will of G-D and according to whatever framework He ordained for them. Their existence would not dilute ours; it would simply reflect the infinite breadth of the Creator.


So what would “aliens” mean, if that word is being used to mean physical, non-human beings living somewhere else in the created universe? It would mean that G-D created more than one habitat for life. It would mean that the human ego would take a deserved hit. It would mean that the Nations—many of whom have built their worldviews on human-centred myths—might feel destabilised. It would not mean that Torah is “disproven”. It would not mean that mitzvot are “obsolete”. It would not mean that ישראל (Yisrael – the Jewish people) suddenly lose their covenant, or that Har Sinai becomes a metaphor.


A sober conclusion is therefore simple. The political theatre should be treated as politics until evidence proves otherwise. The theological panic should be treated as ignorance, because Torah already knows that creation is vast. The only genuinely Jewish response is to stand even more firmly on the oneness of G-D, to refuse the idol of headlines, and to remember that our mission does not change with rumours, podcasts, or declassified folders. If the universe is larger than we thought, then the majesty of G-D is larger than we were able to articulate yesterday, and that is not a crisis. That is a deeper invitation to יראת שמים (yirat shamayim – awe of Heaven) and to עבודת השם (avodat Hashem – Divine service).



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