My dear Rabbi Lamm נ"י, When I read your article, "The Religious Implications of Extraterrestrial Life" in the l965/66 Vol.7-8 issue of Tradition it came to my mind how Gabirol in his כתר מלכות tried, in his own way and partly, based on the available knowledge of his time, to "penetrate" the great mysteries of the Universe. It was my intention to write to you soon after I had tried (to use the same word) "to penetrate" and to understand your 'flight' into outer space. But, as it happens so often, my letter then to be written to you, remained unwritten – until now.I was, however, reminded of that intention when I happened to see, in a recent New York Times Sunday edition, an article about Saturn and its "rings" and "moons".(All this is completely beyond the scope of my knowledge. Young students may learn and know more about such phenomena than the older generation to which I belong).I opened Gabirol's great hymn of which he wrote in his introductory words: ספרתי בה פלאי אלי חס and I wondered whether it would not be worthwhile, in connection with your above-mentioned essay, to present to the readers of Tradition an analysis of כתר מלכות, both his amazing insight into, and interpretation of, extraterrestrial areas, but also his brilliant, though somewhat flowery effort to cross the bridge from our human-Jewish existence to the mysteries of G-d's creation...לב הסודות אשר לא יכולים שבח ורעיוןI thought the idea might interest you. Since you wrote the article about "The Implications etc.", I could think of no one who would be better qualified to write, so to speak, a continuation of that venture into the Unknown, just as Gabirol did in his own days.We had the custom to read at least part of כתר מלכ' at the very end of the כל נדרי Service, The Rodelheim Machzorim have it preserved for those who still want to find in it a source of inspiration. And is it not indeed in a way closer to us today in our "famous" age of space exploration?...I suggest that such an article on Gabi…

Dear Rabbi Lamm: Thank you very much for your immediate answer to my letter. The more I see and read articles written by you, hear about your lectures, apart from your daily Rabbinical duties and your teaching load, the more one must appreciate that you take time out to deal with incoming correspondence. Now I am glad that you found my suggestion referring to Gabirol's Keter Malkhut valuable enough to justify some searching analysis of the philosopher-poet's approach to "see" the realm of the Infinite. I look forward to reading in the not too distant future your own study! Between the arrival of your letter and this answer, I had the pleasure to read your fine "Message," together with our dear friend's, Rav Leo Jung's, own words. And I just finished your Jewish Life article. An excellent synthesis of the Halakhic teaching and the secular aspects, not only of the Kennedy-Manchester case, but of the far-reaching, almost ominous indications in our time (what about the future?), how the dubious wisdom of technology may prove to be disastrous to individual and to society. I have an interesting illustration and experience of my own. A neighbor whom we know very well, and a good man, is, it seems to me, "bitten" by a "bug." Whatever is new in the field of electronics devices, is of importance to him. He carries sometimes a hidden, "secret" "bugging" device on his body. He has devices that he can, secretly, tape-record my, or anybody's, any visitor's words.... It is frightening. Your article shows, should teach such an individual how he violates Jewish law (which does not mean anything to him) and secular law, which he ignores, let me say, without intending to harm anybody. Your article, most interestingly, goes indeed from the particular to the universal. And how can man be protected from such worsening, horrifying destruction of human privacy? Will the next (or already existing!) device be a LASER beam "seeing" the intimacy in another human being's home? I have more than…

Dear Rabbi Lamm, The study of your most recent essay in Tradition, on "The New Morality under Religious Auspices", not forgetting the previous contribution to Tradition ("Faith and Doubt" to which you had to come back, in reply to Mr. Jeffrey Silver's not too gracious communication) brought the following to my mind. While I am hardly the one to bring publications in the field of religion or in the field of philosophy to your attention, I take the liberty of mentioning to you the name of a good friend of mine because his outstanding work as a theologian, scholar, contributions to the field of literary criticism, relationship between religion, literature and art, inter alia, might be of interest to you. He was my colleague at Howard U., and he, Rev. Dr. Nathan Scott Jr., (an Episcopalian) is now Professor of Theology and Literature in The Divinity School of The University of Chicago (Chicago, Ill. 60637). It is especially his publication which I just had the pleasure of receiving from him, as a token of his friendship, "The Broken Center, Studies in the Theological Horizon of Modern Literature," (Yale, paperbound) that I wish to bring to your attention. Nathan Scott Jr. is a prolific writer. His language and style sometimes frighten me. His previous writings (listed in "The Broken Center") and some forthcoming ones he mentioned to me will perhaps interest you, too. New titles are "Adversity and Grace: Studies in Recent American Literature," "Negative Capability: Studies in the New Literature and the Religious Situation." In addition, he tells me, he just completed another book (on Existentialism) to be published by WORLD in autumn. "The Broken Center" Studies provide the interested scholar, and most of all those who are deeply concerned with all the "faith" problems of today, be they within our own camp or extra muros, with enriching and disturbing food for thought. Needless to say that the Nathan Scott, et al show the wide "credibility" (the word, in its root, is in…

My dear [Rav] Lamm, Having spend פסח in Lakewood, I write to you from Philadelphia, before returning to Wash. after בין שבת ור״ח. You were kind enough, in the midst of the pressure of your pre-פסח increased activities, to send me a greatly appreciated most informative reply י״כ! Having mentioned, and written about, my friend, Professor Nathan H. Scott Jr. and having seen your interest in this outstanding scholar, the enclosure which I copied from a recent letter from N.S. will, I believe, because of more than passing interest to you.

Dear Rav Lamm, A letter written by you (an answer to a previous letter sent to you is before me. the Date: March 7, 1969, almost 2 years ago. In it you wrote that you "had not previously hear of the מדרש which [1] quoted" and you found it fascinating you added: "what is its source?" It took me a long time to find that that מדרש beginning...