Rabbi Linder 07/19
Fifty years ago, after the 230,000-mile voyage, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Moon. The
first time in the history of humanity. If you’re over 55, you likely recall exactly where you were
on that day. I was a 12-year-old boy at Camp Kennebec - a secular, Jewish boys camp in the
north woods of Maine. Just this past Wednesday, I called my life-long friend and brother,
Stanley Weil. We reminisced about gathering in the camp’s mess hall in the middle of that July
afternoon, 1969; some 200 campers and counselors, eyes affixed on a small, staticky black and
white Zenith television set. Little did we know that we were amongst the world’s largest
viewing audience to this day; some 650 million people, a quarter of the Earth’s population,
holding our collective breath; witnessing the successful landing; hearing astronaut Neil
Armstrong report, “Houston, Tranquility Base here, the Eagle has landed;” then, some hours
later, Armstrong stepped out of the lunar-module, down the ladder, the first human being to
set foot on the Moon. Armstrong put that singular achievement in perspective for us all,
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” It was a dizzying, dazzling
moment for this wide-eyed and open-hearted 12-year-old camper. As it is with adolescent
boys’ insecurities, I momentarily turned away from my friends with eyes welling up.
Before going about the business of collecting Moon rocks and soil, making this more than a
Cold War competition between the two earthly superpowers, rather helping earthlings better
understand our cosmic creation story and our place in the universe, Neil Armstrong and Buzz
Aldrin set up an American flag and a plaque that read, “Here men from the planet Earth first set
foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.” Armstrong then took a
photograph of Aldrin saluting the American flag.
All the while, unsung hero, Commander Mike Collins, was orbiting 60 miles above the Moon, his
job – to collect his fellow astronauts and return safely to Earth. Collins, alone in his command
module, yet not lonely, described being awestruck by the magnificent spectacle of seeing the
moon up close. “The sun,” he said, “was coming around it, cascading and making a golden
halo…As impressive as the view was of this alien Moon seen up close, it was nothing compared
to the sight of the Earth. The Earth was the main show. The Earth was it. It’s tiny, it’s shiny, it’s
beautiful, it’s home and it’s fragile.”
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy boldly (and with much controversy) set the course for
America to invest in space exploration, specifically aiming to put a man on the Moon within the
decade. What a shame he wouldn’t live to see that day. In announcing the program, Kennedy
declared, “There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet.” Kennedy
provided an infusion to NASA while America and countries around the globe were embroiled in
conflict. Indeed, it was enticing to move our gaze from earthly concerns, into the unexplored
frontier of outer space.
