"Star Power on Earth" - NIF
It has been almost 6 years since my wife and I moved to Pleasanton and until this past week I never had the opportunity to visit the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. So I was quite excited when, on the day after Passover, my mother (visiting from NY) and I were taken on a private tour of NIF – the National Ignition Facility. (I owe an extraordinary thank you to Doctors Ed Moses and Simon Cohen, without whom this last-minute tour would not have happened. And, of course, to our tour guide Chris Stolz – thank you.)
I didn’t have to be a scientist to be awed and more than impressed by the 192 giant laser beams that arrive together in a space the diameter of a human hair within a few trillionths of a second of each other. When all the beams hit that one target, they create temperatures of 180 million degrees (ten times hotter than the sun) and bring "star power" right here to earth (that’s NIF’s motto).
But I’m not writing you today to solicit grants for this project nor am I writing on their behalf as a promoter (though, if you have the opportunity to visit, take it!). So why am I describing these cutting-edge wonders of science research in my weekly Torah column - the week after Passover?
The Baal Shem Tov – the founder of the Chassidic movement - taught us that everything we see and hear in life is meant to resonate with us and meant for us to use as a vehicle to bring us closer to our creator. So here is a short life lesson that resonated with me:
We, the Jewish People, were born on Passover and charged with a mission by –d. Our mission is to bring "star power to earth". We were chosen to be a "light unto the nations" and bring the radiance of G‑d, a divine consciousness, and a moral awareness to earth.
This certainly sounds like a daunting task. How are we to accomplish this? How can we bring "star power to earth"?
Perhaps we can do it the same way they do it at NIF. By using the principle of a laser beam.
A laser beam has the ability to remain intense and potent even as its light travels long distances. Unlike a regular flashlight that diffuses and becomes weaker, the laser maintains its strength.
What is the laser’s secret?
Its particles are focused, organized, disciplined, and synchronized.
And herein lies the secret to the Jewish People’s potency as well. We were given a gift – the Torah – which contains 613 rules by which we are to arrange, lead, and structure our life. If we adhere to the Torah, our lives become focused and our energies become directed in perfect synchronicity. The result is a potent and meaningful Jewish ray of light on earth.
Succumbing to our every whim and doing whatever we crave might temporarily make us feel good, but, like the light of a flashlight, this impulsive and chaotic behavior does not produce long-lasting results.
We live right here, near the largest laser beam on earth. Let us emulate the laser, focus our lives, and thus bring "star power to earth".
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Raleigh Resnick
