August 26, 2024|כ"ב אב ה' אלפים תשפ"ד "Stuck" and "Stranded" in Space
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They went for eight days but will end up being stuck there for eight months. Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, two NASA astronauts, traveled to the International Space Station in June on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. However, during the test flight for their return, the propulsion system malfunctioned, and engineers determined it wasn’t safe enough to bring the two astronauts back to Earth alive.
NASA and Boeing officials have been careful with their language describing the circumstances, reluctant to use the words, “stuck” and “stranded,” which would reflect poorly on them. Describing their predicament, Suni also avoiding those words, saying, “Butch and I have been up here before, and it feels like coming home. It’s great to be up here, so I’m not complaining.”
Cynics are challenging the diplomatic description of the “extended stay.” Delian Asparouhov, a founder and the president of Varda Space Industries, posted on X: “I don’t know about you, but if I got stuck at an airport for seven months longer than expected, that would definitely qualify as ‘stranded.’”
Starliner, the spacecraft that brought them, will return to Earth unmanned, and the two astronauts are set to return in February on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The two have plenty of supplies and say they aren’t anxious about their extended stay or being stuck. Wilmore's wife Deanna told AP that her husband is "content" at the space station, "neither worrying nor fretting." She said he has faith God is in control, and that this gives his family "great peace."
While it may not be for eight months, many of us feel stranded or stuck in situations or places we find ourselves: a cancelled flight, a hospital stay, an unexpected business trip, a long line, even a traffic jam, and it is hard to just feel that it is an “extended stay.” The key is to know and internalize that God is in control and thorugh that to find great peace.
In 1967, Mrs. Miriam Swerdlov attended a Chabad-sponsored convention for women and girls in Detroit. After the inspiring event, while waiting to board the plane home, Miriam and about 20 other women learned that the flight was canceled due to a snowstorm. The women were somewhat panicked, feeling their families needed them, they had been gone long enough, and really needed to return home.
The group rushed to a payphone and called the Chabad headquarters in New York to ask the Rebbe what to do. Mrs. Swerdlov recalled how the leader of the group, Mrs. Miriam Popack, spoke with Rabbi Binyomin Klein, the Rebbe’s secretary and told him that they were stuck in Detroit. He put them on hold, and a minute later came back on the line: “The Rebbe doesn’t understand the word ‘stuck,’” he said. Mrs. Popack proceeded to explain what the word stuck meant, to which Rabbi Klein replied, “The Rebbe knows what stuck means. The Rebbe says that a Jew is never stuck.”
Caught off guard by the Rebbe’s response, the women immediately got the message and rose to the occasion. They spread throughout the airport and began handing out Shabbat candles to the Jewish women they met. The result: “There are women and families today all over the United States lighting Shabbat candles because we got ‘stuck’ in Detroit.” (As told by Mrs. Miryam Swerdlov, Here’s My Story (JEM) No. 121)
On Tisha B’av, we had the opportunity to interview Sapir Cohen who was abducted from Nir Oz on October 7 and held by Hamas for 55 days. She described being dragged out from her hiding spot under a bed, placed on a motorcycle between two terrorists, and driven back into Gaza where she was abused by civilians. She talked about her harrowing time being held first aboveground and then in a tunnel where she encountered Sinwar.
Her first few days being held hostage, Sapir described she kept replaying what had happened, second-guessing her decisions. Why had she and her boyfriend gone to his family for the Chag? Why did she hide under that bed instead of in a different spot? After several days of feeling tortured by her captors but also by her own mind, Sapir had a major paradigm shift. She simply said to herself, if this is where I am and I have no choice but to be here, this is where God wants me to be. Now, the question is why? What is my mission.
Sapir described that she was being held with a teenage girl who was struggling and suffering terribly with their condition. From the moment she went from feeling stuck and stranded to being there for a reason, she became determined to help this girl and get her out of there alive. She took the girl under her wing, encouraged her, and took great risks to ensure she had enough food. When they learned they were being taken into the tunnels, the girl panicked. Sapir told her, we are in Gaza and what is Gaza’s biggest attraction? The tunnels. We can’t be here and not see them for ourselves! With humor and positivity, she turned the girl’s attitude from helplessness to hope and from dread to determination. After an “extended stay” of 55 days, Sapir and the young girl were released in the final swap on November 30. Of course, we continue to daven that Sapir’s boyfriend Sasha and all the hostages are released and return home.
The Torah describes, “These are the journeys of Bnei Yisroel” and then goes on to immediately list 42 encampments, 42 stops. Which is it, where they journeys or stops? The Rebbe explained (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 23, pp. 227-8):
This is because these encampments were not seen as ends unto themselves but as way-stations and stepping-stones in the larger journey of the Jewish People to attain their goal of entering the Promised Land. Therefore, the stops themselves are referred to as journeys, because they were part of what brought about the ultimate objective.
The same is true of our journey through life. Pauses, interruptions, and setbacks are an inadvertent part of a person’s sojourn on earth. But when everything a person does is toward the goal of attaining the “Holy Land”—the sanctification of the material world—these, too, become journeys of their own. Ultimately, these unplanned stops are shown to have been the true motors of progression, each a catalyst propelling us further toward the realization of our mission and purpose in life.
Like, NASA, though for an entirely different and more meaningful reason, we should be intentional and conscious with our language and like Sapir, purposeful with our attitude and approach.
A Jew is always where they are meant to be. Wherever you are, the goal must be to focus on and figure out why, what is your mission, and how can you make the most of this “journey.”