Dear Rabbi Lapin: With reference to my letter of September 30, Rabbi Lamm has informed me that he will be visiting South Africa beginning the first week in February 1964. Rabbi Lamm's itinerary while in South Africa is being arranged by Mr. Misheiker, who is Chairman of the Jewish Board of Education. He suggests that you arrange with Mr. Misheiker to pick an evening (or perhaps Sunday afternoon) when he can speak to as large as possible a group of Orthodox Jewish scientists in Johannesburg. If you have not succeeded in organizing a group by that time, Rabbi Lamm's visit might provide an excellent stimulus for an organizational meeting.Yours very truly,Dr. Azriel RosenteldPresident

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I am very sorry that I did not reply earlier to your letter but I was waiting until I had more definite information. I have been trying very hard to arrange this group of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and it is turning out even better than I anticipated. We should have about twenty-five people in all, and a couple of them are really top men in their field. One of them has an international reputation for his work in a particular field of Gynecology. For the time being at least I have excluded lawyers, accountants and any teachers. I have made it a very strict rule that only those who observe the Sabbath strictly and eat only Kosher are eligible for membership. All these people have been interested. I am meeting a representative of the Board of Education within the next two days to decide on a definite date for the first meeting which will take place in my home and will give us an opportunity to launch this Society. After your arrival I hope I shall still have a chance of discussing one or two details with regard to our official affiliation to the Society of America. I wish you to know, dear Rabbi Lamm, that I am placing myself completely at your disposal in every way, and I and my wife wish you to know that our home is open to you at any time, and if there is anything you require we shall be only too pleased to be of any assistance, and very sincerely put ourselves at your disposal in any way. I hope that you might render me, of course, available to you at any time. If there is anything that I can do for you before your arrival please let me know. We are all still very concerned about our colleague, Rabbi Dr. M. Kossowsky, who has been so desperately ill. Prayers are being said for him, not only here but also in Israel and I understand in Cleveland. The last few days there has been a very slight improvement for which we are most grateful. Please do remember me to Rabbi Samson R. Weiss. Kindest regards to you and also to the members of your family, in…

Dear Azriel: I have recently been speaking with Rabbi Jung about a problem in which I think the A.O.J.C. can make a real creative contribution. As a former student of Chemistry, I have always been intrigued, if not puzzled, by the problem of absorption of different materials with regard to the laws of "Yoreh Deah." Rabbi Jung is interested in obtaining the services of either a Chemist or Metallurgist who will be able to devote some time, with a high degree of competence, to analyzing the absorptive capacities of the various materials currently used for cooking utensils, flatware, dishes, with an eye to using pertinent information in formulating Halakhic attitudes.What I would like from you is a recommendation of an individual or small group of individuals from A.O.J.C. who will be willing to undertake this project in a systematic manner. The goal would be to have the information as presented to outstanding Halakhic authorities, urging them to express their opinions on the basis of scientific evidence, and then to have all the material, scientific and Halakhic, published in NOAM, the Hebrew annual which for the last several years has been devoted exclusively to contemporary Halakhic problems.Rabbi Jung informs me that he is prepared, if necessary, to subsidize a Scientist of real expertness in this field to get the work done responsibly and reliably.Please give it your attention and let me know as soon as possible what your thoughts are on the matter.My kindest regards to your wife and best wishes for good luck.Sincerely yours,RABBI NORMAN LAMM

Dear Rabbi, I have just read your very timely and superbly reasoned analysis of existentialist life implications in Tradition. In at least one sense, the existence of life itself on planet earth–with the diminishing proportion of man’s greater respiratory desire from his being, instead returning such destruction of forest and the acidity so recognized with the extinction of the universe in accordance with natural lawfulness (inevitability?)–must be recognized as being primarily the result of man’s being–misuse of the resources of the earth, not only as stewards (of the thoughts of murder being excluded). If man’s function, indeed, of significant cosmic meaning would not be highly questioned by his life-willingly turned into destroying and thereby all options of total self-destruction?

Dear Rabbi, We have noted here with great interest your recent remarks in “Tradition” concerning theological thought and the possibility of eventual contact with extra-terrestrial life. Here at M.G.M. studios, Mr. Stanley Kubrick, the producer-director whose past credits include “Dr. Strangelove,” “Lolita,” “Paths of Glory,” is working on a film on the subject of extra-terrestrial intelligence and the impact it might have on society. The film, entitled “2001: A Space Odyssey,” was co-written by Mr. Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, the world’s foremost science fiction writer. It isn't a horrific science fiction film but a logical extrapolation of what can and very well might happen in society in the next thirty-five years. It is being shot for release by M.G.M. worldwide in Cinerama and Technicolor. It is a film of unusual content and extraordinary quality and beauty. More than twenty-five of the world's leading scientific and technical organisations contributed guidance and specialised equipment so that Mr. Kubrick could film life as it will be in the first year of the twenty-first century. Two gentlemen from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration George C. Marshall Space Flight Center have been on the staff here for a year and a half as technical guides.As a Prologue to the film, we are filming conversations with many of the world's leading scientific figures discussing briefly, and informally, their attitudes towards the concept of extra-terrestrial intelligence. We are very anxious to include in the Prologue statements of theological points of view. Father F. J. Heyden of Georgetown University will be filmed in this context in Washington, the first week in May, discussing the Catholic point of view.I wonder, Rabbi, if you could possibly accommodate us in this regard. Specifically, would you be available some time during the afternoon of Tuesday, May 10th, for one hour of filming at a place convenient to you? There will be nothing to prepare, your remar…

Dear Rabbi Lamm, Just a fan letter to let you Know how much I appreciated your excellent, thought-provoking study, "The Religious Implications of Extraterrestrial Life" in the current issue of Tradition. The discussion was significant in exploring a Jewish approach to the eventual discovery of life on other worlds, and as such I nave no doubt that your study will be the source to which Jewish (and possibly Catholic) theologians will turn in 10, 50 or 100 years when, as is probable, contact will be made with extraterrestrial life.However, of at least equal or greater significance in my mind, was your treatment, in the course of your discussion, of a number of major concepts of Jewish theology from the Orthodox point of view which provided fresh, new insights into biblical exegesis and the story of the Creation, and the nature of G-d, and His relation to man. You have thus made available to the Orthodox Jewish intellectual, scientist and collegian a major contribution to their understanding of Judaism, and all three will find in your discussion a new source of strength for their faith as they delve into questions relating to G-d, man and the universe.May G-d grant you the strength and the means to continue in the footsteps of the Rambam and S.R. Hirsch.Sincerely,Michael KaufmanRabbi Norman Lamm 27 West 06th Street New York City

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I have just read with great interest your article in the current number of "Tradition" on "extra-terrestrial life" and I must congratulate you on its timeliness and its significance. It is most important that a brake should be administered to some of the scientists who grossly exceed their scientific prerogative שתו בשמים פיהם ולשונם תהלך בארץ. As you remark yourself there is a considerable difference of opinion in the scientific world about the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. You may not have seen a recent article in the "New Scientist" which presents the biologist’s point of view, and I have therefore sent a photocopy under separate cover. Also the physicist Victor Weisskopf (who was for the past few years the Director of CERN and is certainly no less distinguished than the others you quote) says the following in a recent publication:-"It is often said that science has displaced man and his Earth from the center of the universe, where he fondly had believed himself to be, and relegates him to some unimportant place. Our Sun is only a small and undistinguished starlet in a corner of the enormous expanses of our galaxy, with many other stars like it. What is more, there are probably quite a number of other stars with planets where life has developed. These might be depressing thoughts for some.But it may also have a different significance. The vastness of the universe, the billions of stars and the space between them are necessary conditions for the development of matter from simple, unordered particles to atoms and molecules and finally to the large aggregates which form animals and sentient beings. The spots at which matter acquires more differentiated shape are very few and selected. They must be considered as the most develped and most outstanding parts of the universe, the parts where matter was able to make fuller use of its potentialities. We find ourselves, therefore, in a very privileged and central position, since our Earth is one …

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I was interested to read your views on the possibility of life on other planets as quoted in this Sunday's N.Y. Times. My husband is an artist, and he feels as you do, that we must take this possibility of other kinds very seriously. As our history on earth has been a gradual integration of men into mankind, so the destiny of mankind may well be integration into the universe, + the formation of a new, larger, composite being by communication of cultures.

Dear Rabbi Lamm, I want to thank you for the copy of your monograph on the Religious Implications of Extraterrestrial Life. I have read it with much interest and thoroughly agree with you. Yours very sincerely, Francis J. Heyden, S.J. Director.

לכבוד ידידי הרב המהולל ד״ר נחום לאם שלום: תודתי שטוחה לפניך עבור התדפיסים של מאמריך המענינים שהואלת בטובך לשלוח לי, עברתי בעיון ובעונג על מאמרך שפרסמת לאחרונה על "המשמעות הדתית של חיים על-ארציים." אין ספק, כי נחוץ מאד להגיב בזמן על כל התגליות המדעיות המפתיעות אותנו מדי יום. הנוער הלומד מרבה לשאול שאלות מביכות. השואלים הללו נבוכים הם בזמננו יותר מאשר בתקופת רב סעדיה גאון ובתקופת הרמב״ם.יש לנו צורך גדול במורה נבוכים מודרני, ואולי אתה האיש, אולי לכך נוצרת... קריינא דאגרתא, איהו ליהוי פרוונקא.בידידות ובמיטב האחולים,פלטיאל ביריבוים