Following the lunar landing on 20 July 1969, Rabbi Benzion Firer (1914-1988) addressed the following question:

“In the last days, after man has succeeded in setting foot on the Moon, no longer do people laugh at the possibility of creating conditions for human life there. It will no longer seem absurd, therefore, if someone attempts to examine what the status of this new world will be from the perspective of Halakha, once we have conquered it. The question, then, is this: Would a Jew who reached the Moon be obligated to observe Torah and commandments, or not?”

It is not clear whether anyone other than the respondent himself posed the question. It is likely that Rabbi Firer used the responsa form as a vehicle for initiating an innovative halakhic discussion. The wording of the text suggested that the question had been raised – and indeed it had! – but until Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon’s surface, it seems that people had thought that the theoretical discussion was futile.

From Siberian Snow to Moshav Soil

Rabbi Benzion Firer was born in Galicia (today Poland). At the age of nineteen, he married his cousin Frida Goldman. In lieu of a traditional dowry, Firer requested funds to publish his first book: Hemdat Tzion (Kraków 1936) – collected analyses of Talmudic passages.

After his father passed away, Firer briefly served as the rabbi of Rymanów until the outbreak of the Second World War. He survived the war in Siberian exile after being deported by the Soviets. After the war, he spent time in a Displaced Persons camp in Ulm, Germany, where he contributed to the reconstitution of Jewish life by opening a Yeshiva.

Following the establishment of the State of Israel, he immigrated to Israel in 1949. He initially lived in an immigrant transit camp in Pardes Hanna and subsequently moved to Ramat Gan and then to Bnei Brak. In 1957, he was appointed rabbi of Moshav Nir Galim, a post he held for 32 years until his death.

In addition to his local rabbinic duties, Firer taught at various Torah institutions, including Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh – the first hesder yeshiva that combined advanced Talmudic studies and army service. Rabbi Firer was also a prolific writer, publishing many volumes of Torah insights, as well as works of fiction.

In 1969,........

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