Spirituality and Judaism Episodes
Shmooze with Deana Weibel: Anthropology of Religion in Space & The Ultraview Effect
In this fascinating episode of Space Midrash, host Jacob Sager sits down with Deana Weibel, a distinguished professor and anthropologist of religion. They explore the intersection of faith, anthropology, and human spaceflight. 🚀✨ Deana shares her unique insights on how religion adapts to the challenges and opportunities of space exploration, revealing the unexpected item she…
Shmooze with Keisha Schahaff: Seeing Earth and Space with Family and Meaning
Keisha Shahaf, an astronaut who went to space last year, shares her perspective on the meaning of space and the impact it has had on her life. She sees space as a part of exploration and self-discovery, a place of peace and connection. Her experience in space has deepened her appreciation and understanding of the…
Shmooze with Paul Levinson: Exploring the Universe through Scholarship, Sci-Fi, and Songwriting
🚀 Welcome to Space Midrash! Today’s episode is all about my interview with the legendary sci-fi author, Paul Levinson. 😍 In this interview, we covered everything from religion to space travel, and of course, his latest project, an alternate history of The Beatles. 🎶 One of the most interesting moments was when Paul talked about…
Shmooze with Rachel Raz: Jewish Education in the Space Age
Rachel Raz is the executive producer of the Space Torah documentary about Dr.Jeffrey Hoffman, an astronaut who brought a dreidel and a Torah with him to space.
18: Narrative Collapse in the Space Age
In this episode, Jacob defines a narrative collapse, explores how the space age will bring more narrative collapse, and how he believes Jewish civilization can embrace narrative collapse, once again. Transcript You are listening to space midrash. I am your host, Jacob Sager. I believe in an artful, ethical, and inclusive humanity thriving amongst the…
14: Jewish Objects Brought to Space
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.
13: Two Torahs on Columbia
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…
10: Our Seder in Outer Space
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.…
8: Havdalah – human senses in time and space
Havdalah begins with counting stars and ends with extinguishing a candle into wine. Space Midrash will explore how this weekly ritual enriches the human perception of time, on earth or anywhere in the cosmos…
4: Sitting Shiva for Spock
As we come into the space age and more people venture out into the unknown, we must consider how we will deal with death and mourning. The death of Spock in Star Trek 2 provides us with a unique opportunity to explore these concepts. In particular, Kirk’s eulogy for Spock reminds us that it is…
Ep. 3: How do we see ourselves (from space)?
As technology advances, we are increasingly thrust into a reality where we must come to terms with our place in the universe. This new reality has the potential to drastically change the way we see ourselves and our place in the world. Jewish civilization, with its long history of storytelling, has the opportunity to lead…
Ep. 2: Which Astronauts are Jewish?
Eventually you’ll call them the early Jewish astronauts. In this episode Jacob discusses the first 16 Jewish Astronauts and the Jewish objects they brought into space. In his opening monologue, he probes why there’s a higher percentage of Jewish astronauts than Jews from the general population as well as confront the misconception that there were…
Space Midrash produces media and events
connecting Jewish People and Communities to Space.
Space /spās/ – the awe-filled cosmos that is begging us to come and know it, and be greater through it.
Midrash /ˈmidˌräSH/ – a Jewish process of providing contemporary commentary through storytelling.