Recently my wife and I visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Since I was a child in grade school I have had a fascination with outer space, planets, stars, and so on. I have long dreamed of standing on the bridge of the Enterprise giving the command to, ‘Engage’, to go where no man has gone before.
This blog is inspired by a discussion I had with a friend when an analogy came to mind regarding the above subject and I pondered this it has developed even farther.
Jew and non-Jew (Noahide) both will be able to relate to this blog.
Before reading the blog click in the picture and look at the details of the rocket engine with its many intricate parts.
My friend and I had just finished lunch and I was sharing some small bits of my learning that I have done while in the geirus process. I was explaining a few of the simple but yet complex laws Shabbos with him. As we both grew up in a Sabbath keeping church and yet there is so much about Sabbath we never knew.
While explaining to him that there are many details to Sabbath that the non-Jew does not know nor comprehend because it was not meant for the non-Jew to keep; I explained that if one small piece of Shabbos was undone then it will not work.
Then I thought of the mighty rocket engines I saw in the museum, in all their complexity if one were to remove one part the engine would fail and not work.
As I pondered this I began to relate it to all of the mitzvos of HASHEM,
The 7 Laws of Noah are simple but yet very detailed.
- Belief in One G-d
- Do not blaspheme or curse G-d
- Proper sexual relations
- Do not commit theft
- Do not murder
- Do not eat a limb torn from a living animal (proper care of animals)
- Set up courts of justice
For the Jew the whole Torah with its 613 mitzvos
Every mitzvah has its simple and plain statement as in the 7 listed above but when one begins to investigate them you will see that there are many parts to it like the rocket engine. And if you leave out one part the mitzvah will not work and do its created function. The mitzvah becomes grounded and has no power to lift.
Like a rocket engine with its grand engineering, when it is complete and in order it will propel the rocket upward toward the heavens. So too, the mitzvah of HASHEM when kept in all its details, it will propel you upward to the heavens as well.
Each mitzvah HASHEM gives us is an additional rocket engine to propel us to our intended destination.
So many want to undo the engines that HASHEM has given us. Religions have sprung up that claim we do not need them anymore; by doing this they only succeed in keeping you and them grounded with faulty engines.
Without the properly working rocket engines that HASHEM gave us, Jew & non-Jew we are grounded, we have no upward thrust. Every detail of a mitzvah like the rocket engine counts and is essential for the engine to work as it was created to do.
5 engines under the Saturn 5 Rocket propelled it up to 7 times the speed of sound with millions of pounds of thrust. The non-Jew is given 7 engines and the Jewish Nation 613. Can one imagine the thrust and speed one can travel toward the heavens when we make sure that each engine is in proper working order and fired?
So instead of looking at the mitzvos – Laws of G-d as burdens that weigh you down – see them for what they are, rocket engines that will propel you up ward toward your Creator.
Terry W. Hayes
11/2012
Emuna Trek 