Space Midrash Jacob Sager

Many Jewish objects have crossed the Karmen line into space - religious, cultural, and personally meaningful items. This episode is a quick overview of those items.

the Space Shuttle Columbia was the first to carry passengers. Across 22 years, it spent more than 300 days in Orbit. Among it's payloads were two different Torahs. One at the beginning of it's saga and the other, tragically at the end. This episode chronicles the Torahs brought aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia by Jeffrey Hoffman in 1996 and Ilan Ramon in 2003.

Before the inaugural Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights, there had been 16 Jewish astronauts, all professional. Since last year, 3 more Jews have ventured into space. These new Jewish Astronauts embody the intersection of Jewish and Space Age values. This Episode briefly recaps the missions of Jared Issacman (SpaceX), William Shatner (Blue Origin), and […]

In the beginning there were two space programs: The United States and the Soviet Union. Now that private companies and highschoolers can participate, Jacob considers how and why a Jewish Space Program can take shape.

Passover and The Space Age go together. Before this podcast, Jacob began considering the impact of the Overview Effect on Jewish communities Worldwide. The Overview Effect being the cognition or experience of viewing the earth from space or in space. He wrote his original thoughts in an essay on Times of Israel blogs in 2021. […]

This episode explores anti-semitism as it can occur in the Space Age. Beginning with Mel Brooks’ famous “Jews in Space” skit and continuing into the last years’ headlines of wildfire-starting Jewish Space Lasers, Jacob explores how anti-semitism can emerge socially through propaganda, as well how the space age could empower genocide. There’s some jokes but […]