UFOs, Aliens & Space Travel: The Torah's Secret About Extraterrestrial Life - Rabbi Daniel Glatstein

Okay. of recent President Trump and the government among many other top secret documents that they've been releasing regarding events that happened in the last century whether it was uh the assassination of JFK or others. They have uh started to declassify information about unidentified flying objects. Now actually that is not the official term for it. The official term, let me get this up on the screen so that you see the official term is unidentified anomalous phenomena. UAP UAP unofficial unidentified anomalous phenomena. And I'm going to show you some uh interesting documentation. Let me see. Okay. First of all, the United States government is actively declassifying and releasing extensive files on UAP, unidentified anomalous phenomena, the official term for UFOs, which is uh driven by the directives from the Trump administration. The Pentagon has released multiple batches of documents, photos, and previously classified information. Um, it comes from infrared sensor and cockpit videos. And the first thing you need to know is there is no there has been no extraterrestrial evidence. The Pentagon and ARO investigations have found no evidence linking any of these phenomena to alien technology or extraterrestrial life. Though they admit many sightings remained unexplained and mysterious. How do you find the files? Okay, the Department of War has launched a centralized portal where you can download and view all declassified documents and footage. You can access this information directly on war.gov gov UAP portal. So, in honor of Memorial Day and in honor of the United States government today, we're going to be examining some of the declassified information. And I'll let you draw your own conclusions whether you feel that this is compelling information that when you go to sleep at night, there might be unidentified flying objects uh near you. Now, I just want to share some highly I wouldn't even call declassified. This is classified information. And um I'm just going to share with you my own personal tips on UFOs. If let's say you're walking down the street and you you look up in the nighttime sky and you see a circular object flying in the air. If you wanted to know is this a authentic unidentified flying object like we said Shuis Knight the real well way to tell is it usually has light beams. Okay. If it has five light beams shining down, that is a telltale sign that it is a authentic unidentified flying object or like we said earlier, more correctly, an unidentified anomalous phenomena. However, if it only has four light beams, it's fake news. You have nothing to worry about. They will not beam you up to Neptune. Okay, so that's just by way of introduction. Now dear friends, let me share with you some of these uh recent declassified documents. Could you see on the screen? Do you see? Okay, here you see the pictures. This is imagery likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a US military platform operating within the United States central command area of responsibility. In 2022, a user uploaded this video to a classified network in June 2024. As you could see on the screen, conclusive evidence that there is unidentified flying objects up there beyond >> I can't see that on the screen by the way. >> Well, do you see it? >> Let me see your previous document. >> Do you see the document? >> Not the document. Sorry. the the web page with the definition but I can't see the video. >> No, not a video. A picture. Do you see the picture? Okay, one second. Let's try that again. Now you see me, right? I am I am an actual human being on planet Earth. Okay. In living in Cedarhurst, um I have not have not been taken by any unidentified flying objects. However, now we're going to be going to the the Department of War uh site. Do you see these documents? You see this? >> Yes. Now, concealed. >> Okay. There you Oh, now this one this one. What? This one is uh it's just irrefutable. You see this? It looks like a picture of the ocean. And then you see this thing over here. Clearly clearly an unidentified flying object, right? That has recently um that is it was uploaded in September 20120. Now here's another say what is that imagery likely derived from an infrared sensor about a US military platform operating with the United States central command area of responsibility in 2021. A user uploaded this video to a classified network in June 2024. Now this this looks like you see they're growing. Now it's more than one. Now we have four imagery likely derived from an infrared sensor about a US military platform. A user uploaded this video to classified network in June 2024. And then for the first time ever on Agra de Perka. Never has this document ever been released on Agra de Perka. Check this out. In late 2025, during early evening daylight hours, I a senior US intelligence officer, maybe with emphasis on senior, but we'll leave it at that. Along with a colleague and two pilots, departed our joint operations center JC in a helicopter. Our mission was to investigate loud thuds heard in the mountains on the test range which coincided with unidentified aerial phenomena UAP sightings reported over the previous several nights we arrived. So basically they're flying out because they heard loud noises that matched reports of UAPs, unidentified aerial phenomena. Um even though that's in disagreement with um a certain a certain technology that refers to them as unidentified anomalous phenomena, but we'll let them fight that out. Okay. So now uh report over the previous seven nights. We aim to search remote mountain areas for possible debris or objects that might explain the orblike sightings. After leaving the Joocc, we flew a lowaltitude map of the Earth route through the mountain range for several hours. Multiple times, we spotted debris on the ground and descended for closer inspection. Each time, we determined it was remnants from rockets and other projectiles that had crashed during the years of weapons testing on the range. As we continued searching near areas of reported orb activity, we discovered a large cave entrance with no visible end in sight. The terrain around the entrance offered no safe landing spot. So, I instructed the pilot to orbit it several times for observation. We noted the location and then pressed on. [clears throat] Running low on fuel, we headed to a pre-arranged rendevu point to meet a ground team and let my colleague disembark. The two pilots and I then proceeded to a pre-positioned tanker on the range for refueling. Our plan was to return to base afterward, but the JOC radioed with a request to search a nearby mountain for debris, spotted by one on the one of the ground teams. By this time, the sun had set and the pilot switched to forwardlooking infrared and night vision goggles while I continued using the un unaded naked eye. After a brief search of the mountain yielded no findings, the pilots began navigating back to the JooC to end the mission. I then received a message from the JOC. Radar had detected hits several miles uprange from our position, the same area where the UAP activity had been observed in the prior nights. So basically a few a few nights before they observed unidentified uh aerial phenomena and the radar had detected activity in that area. I relayed this to the pilots and we altered course to intercept. What followed was a series of close UAP encounters lasting over an hour. Now, what I'm about to read is not for the faint-hearted. If if you feel that your nerves are a little frazzled or you're not of sound emotional state, immediately sign off and check out other Agra Deerka programming. Okay, that's my official warning. In route, ground teams reported spotting an unidentified aerial phenomena on FLIR, describing it as super hot, low to the ground, and moving east and south at high speed. The object then split into two and changed direction. Upon arrival, we scanned the area using NVG, LIR, and the naked eye. The ground team suddenly radioed that the object had risen from the ground, approached within 10 ft of the helicopter, dropped below us, and then sped away. The pilots observed it through NVGs, and saw it split into two as a smaller object emerged before it accelerated out of sight. We briefly pursued but broke off, unable to match its speed. At one point, the JOC informed us that several fighter jets had launched on a training mission in our operating area and requested their assistance in identifying the UAP. Okay. So this is some of the documentation that has been released and it's become a a topic of great interest about is there a Torah viewpoint about unidentifying flying objects as well as extraterrestrial life and maybe even this will bring us to the topic of space travel in the end of days. So like every subject in Torah, we uh don't just speculate or theorize, but every topic that can be and is discussed in the world has foundational material in Nohakosha. So let's start with the uh following uh introduction and I will share with you that I came to this topic from an article that I saw written by Rabbi Ari Kaplan in the Rabbi Ari Kaplan reader on pages 170 till 174 as well as an article I came across in the Kakira journal. Hakira journal. This particular article is written by an individual named Yasi Roth and it begins on page 275. Rabbi Roth points out that until the 16th century it was generally believed that the planet earth was stationary and it was orbited by the sun and other planets. The model is called the tomic model or the geocentric model. Basically the tomic model organized the universe into nine spheres and with the earth at its center. They believed the stars were not suns and there are no other planets besides the one um beyond the eighth sphere. In 1543, Nicholas Capernicus advanced an alternative to the geocentric model. Now, I want to point out so long as the world believed in a geocentric model, nobody uh entertained the possibility really of life on other planets. After all, if the Earth, if planet Earth is the center of the entire universe, and as far as we know, mankind and life in general is only possible on this world. Nobody theorized the possibility of life elsewhere. After all, we're the center of the universe. However, in 1543, Capernacus offered an alternative to the geocentric model. He theorized a heliocentric model with the sun positioned near the center of the universe. The sun remained motionless and the earth and all the planets rotated around the sun. Now, we're going to see later on in the series that although our belief is that man is at the center of the universe in terms of importance, that may or may not impact whether we believe in a geocentric or heliocentric model. Now, Capernicus although he altered and there was a great shift between the geocentric model and the heliocentric model, nevertheless he did not expand the size of the universe. The size of the universe was uh was was expanded through the Italian philosopher Bruno. And uh Bruno extended the cosmological theory beyond the Capernac model and he theorized or he proposed that the sun was just another star and he he he uh he asserted that the universe contains an infinite number of planets and stars. By the way, uh like we mentioned nonwis infinity, the word infinity and the concept of infinity actually is not objective. There are different levels of infinity if that could even be explained. Okay. Now as the capernicus model became uh the prevailing accepted model, mankind began to question well if there are countless planets and countless stars and cl countless galaxies and the earth relative to the size of the universe was like a dustmite and the earth is not the center of the universe. So then maybe there's life somewhere beyond planet earth. You see, so long as Earth was the center of the universe and everything that was created was created for Earth and for man, it didn't dawn on anybody. Maybe there's life on other planets. No, this is the center of existence. But now that the earth is not the center of the universe, now that the sun is the center and the earth is is one of the billions of moons and planets, then the same way there's life on this planet, who's to say there isn't life elsewhere? Now, this is very important. The possibility and the discussion of life on other worlds and other planets is actually more relevant and is a more reasonable conversation if one is religious and one believes in the creator than if one uh does not believe in creation exhil because if this world came to be spontaneously by accident and the likelihood or the possibility for life on this world is not just statistically unlikely or highly improbable. It's pretty much downright impossible and yet it developed. Why would anybody assume that life developed anywhere else? It's it's practically impossible if somebody doesn't believe in the creator for life to have developed here. Why would anybody imagine that any form of intelligent life developed or any life at all developed anywhere in the universe? However, as a religious Jew, when you approach this mystery, the question is not could Hashem create life on another planet. Could he? Of course he could. Hashem could do anything uh philosophically, hashgophically. To say that Hashem could not create other intelligent life forms on other planets or other places, that would be faulty. That would be questioning the ability and the capability of Hashem. So the question is not can Hashem create life elsewhere. The question is did he? And that's the question we're going to uh deal with in this series. Did Hashem create life, especially intelligent life on other planets? And this will get involved in many, many important discussions. Namely, if Hashem did create intelligent life, do they have free choice? Could Hashem have given them the Torah? Are the Jewish people the chosen people of this world? Could there be a chosen? Could there be ne in Neptune, a different chosen nation? These are all the questions we're going to discuss. And let's see if we could put the mar up on the screen. Uh this topic and this discussion begins with the garra and sanhedrin and daf lammed zion. The gumar andaf lammed Zion says as follows. When Hashem created the world, he created many monkeys. He created many rabbits, many cows, many horses, many ants, many mosquitoes. But Hashem created only one man, says Sanhedrin. Therefore, man was created by himself to teach you. Anyone who destroys one soul of the Jewish people, it's considered like he destroyed the whole world. And based on this, the Mishna encourages us, obligates us. Therefore, each and every person is obligated to say the world was created for me. Which is incredible because there's a big world out there. There's a big universe out there. They're not hundreds of stars. They're not millions of stars. They're not billions of stars. They're a lot more than that. And the question is, if it was all created for me, why did Hashem create all of those stars for me? What purpose do they serve in terms of how many stars there are out there? Let's take a look at the gar and lad. The Gomorrah uh describes the um is discussing the PK said God abandoned me and Hashem forgot me. asks says a person marries a woman above and beyond his first wife. So the first wife says you've abandoned me. So listen to what Hashem says. My daughter created 12 constellations in the in the firmament. For every constellation I created 30 army commanders. For each army commander I created 30 legions. For every legion I created 30 riatines. Another kind of officer. For every commander I command, I created 30 cartons. I created 30 gistas. For each one of these millions of forces, I created 365,000 myriads. You understand that? 365,000 * 10,000 * 30 * 30 * 30 * 30 * 30 * 30 * 30 * 30 * 12. You know how many stars that is? That's about a quintilion number of stars, which by the way is very close to the number of stars in the observable universe. And who did Hashem create them for? He created them for little old me. Why? Why did God create so many worlds just for me? By the way, um, many of these stars are bigger than planet Earth, much bigger than planet Earth. Some of them are bigger than the sun. The Ram writes [clears throat] There's some stars. Each one is bigger than the earth. Come up many times. So God created quintilions of stars and he made them for me. Why? Why did he make it for me? Well, you know who was troubled by this question? none other than David says in parashem our master how powerful is your name in the whole world that you place your glory over the heaven says when I see your heavens the work of your finger the moon and the stars I wonder what is man that you remember him. What is mankind that you consider him? And yet you catapulted man to be just below the angels. And with honor and glory you crowned him. You made him rule over all of your handiwork. So David wonders that why has God crowned man with such distinction that all of these billions, trillions, quintilion worlds were created for him. Now, by the way, with all the vastness of the universe, there is still no question that the human brain is still more complex than the greatest galaxy and that there's more information contained in the human brain than in the entire observable inanimate universe. Plus, man has a soul that towers even over the greatest angels. So we understand why God created so many worlds for us because we're we are of far greater sophistication than all of creation. But still what is the function of all of these worlds? Why has God created so many of these worlds for us? So the Ram says that one of the powerful uh reasons for all of creation is it is a way of coming to love and to fear Hashem. The Ram says in it's page five the Ram says in per what is the path to love Hashem to fear Hashem at the time that a person contemplates the acts and the creations of Hashem's wondrous world and you see Hashem's wisdom it cannot be estimated like there's no end you immediately come to love you praise and glorify and one develops a desire says the Ram like says and when we think about these matters we recoil and we're afraid and we realize that we are a great cre we're are we're a minuscule creature a dark with such minimal intellect Like says, "When I see your heavens, the work of your of your handiwork." By the way, if you look in the lush of the Rambam, the Rambam amazingly says that when we contemplate creation, we we are drawn to Hashem and we have a tremendous tya to come close to Hashem. But the more we think about it, we recoil. Think about what the Ram's saying. Even though normally we typically say first comes fear of Hashem, then comes love. Here the Ram says it the exact opposite way that at first we're so inspired, we have a great ta to come understand Hashem, but then when we start understanding him, we recoil. Rav Schwab suggested you know the concept of shuckling is at first we're drawn to Hashem with great ahava but as the ram says here the more we recognize appreciate Hashem then we recoil in fear it's like a neverending cycle of desiring to know and come close and yet being awed with with deep profound reverence and it causes us to recoil. So when a Jew learns Tyra, he shuckles. First we come close by and then you recoil in. So the question is you have all of these worlds. What's going on there? What's happening on these worlds? Is anything taking place over there? Because aside from the gumar that describes how many stars there are there's another garra in a desc and the garra says as follows said in the name of ravim The world the day is 12 hours. What does God do during those 12 hours? The first three hours, God sits and he engages in Torah study. The second two hours, the second three hours, he judges the whole world. The only thing is after judging the world, Hashem determines the world needs to be destroyed. When Hashem sees the world needs to be destroyed, he gets off the throne of justice and he sits on the throne of mercy. So the first three hours God learns. The second three hours he judges the final three hours. Hashem sits and sustains the whole world from the horned mighty to the microscopic egg of the lous. What does Hashem do in the final four hours? God, so to speak, plays with the Gmorrah continues in discussion of is really is that what God does for the last three hours. Hashem plays with the soar offers another interpretation. The other interpretation is God rides a swift cherub and he floats and he flies in his 18,000 worlds like it says the chariot of God shan the chariot of God is two myriads 2,000 shan. So there's a gar here that is discussing another 18,000 worlds that God flies through every day. Okay? So we have quintilion stars and 18,000 worlds. But the big problem is why is God flying through these 18,000 worlds? Presumably, he's he's taking care of them. Well, we said that in the last in the third three hours, God is feeding everyone. So, why does he have to fly through the 18,000 worlds and feed them separately from his feeding the rest of the world in the third three hours? In other words, the first three hours, God learns. Second three, he judges. The third three, he feeds the world. And the fourth three, he's flying through the 18,000 worlds. Well, why doesn't he fly through the 18,000 worlds in the third 3 hours? So, this is the subject of Rab Yehuda, the re Barcelona, Yehuda ben Barzili of 11th century Spain. And he wrote a commentary on safer and he asked the following question. He asked on page 225. At first we have to explain so that the student could learn. When God takes care of the world in the third three hours of the day, why doesn't he include the 18,000 worlds, when he judges them in the second three hours, when he feeds them in the third three hours? So why doesn't he take care of the 18,000 worlds? So you say, "No, he doesn't have time." Oh, you're saying Hashem's too busy. What? It takes him too much time taking care of this world that he doesn't have time to take care of the other 18,000 worlds. That's absurd. When he judges creations in the second three hours when he feeds them, he already judged them. God could take care of the 18,000 worlds in the blink of an eye. He could do it in a nancond. So that's the question of Rabie Huda Barilai in Rabihuda Barceloni. He asks why can't God take care of the 18,000 worlds during the 3-hour slot that he judges our world and the three-hour slot that he feeds our worlds. Soil offers a few answers that has uh that its ramifications reverberate to our time. Answer number one, God likes us better. God likes us better. Why? Tyra because maybe God didn't give those aliens Tyra. So just just think about what he's saying. He seems to be taking for granted that in these other worlds there's life. He seems to be taking for granted that there's intelligent life. He seems to be taking for granted that there they have similar existence to us. But maybe God likes us better because he didn't give them Tory. But he doesn't say definitively he didn't. He says maybe he didn't. So what? Maybe he did. Maybe he did. God has a mat. There was a mat and Torah to the Martians and the aliens. That's what he seems to be saying. But the says, "No, maybe he didn't. We have cuz he likes us better. because he gave us the Tory. So therefore, God judges us and he feeds us before and first God feeds us and then he'll take care of the threeheaded fivewinged six antennians on Neptune cuz maybe they don't have Tyra. Interesting. But and maybe they do have Tyra. There's a possibility that God made an announcement. Okay, tomorrow morning everyone gather around the crater on uh Jupiter and uh we want all the Martians getting themselves together and uh gathering around for Okay, that's answer number one. What's answer number two? Answer number two. Answer number two is maybe Hashem likes them better. Why does he like them better? Maybe on those worlds, maybe those angels and spirits that Hashem created, um, maybe they don't sin. Maybe they don't sin. That's answer number two. Maybe they don't sin. Maybe they're like angels and spirits that God created in his for his honor or something similar to angels. Maybe they're without sin. And therefore, Hashem has to judge us first because we're full of sin. Maybe they don't need to be judged. What are you judging them for? They don't sin. Only man has a challenge whether whether to bring their phone into shaw or not. But they the aliens don't bring their phone into shaw. They could by the way maybe they could but only men has that problem. I heard somebody told me once, not in not in my city or in my sh not or in my co in the United States, but I heard that one time somebody forgot and accidentally brought a phone into I can't I can't believe it. I wasn't mabo. I I can't imagine how somebody would do something like that. Would you bring in a big screen television to watch it in middle of dabing? So what? Because it's it's uh it's small so it's okay. is still would you bring your ATM machine to sit next to you by the ding? H you wouldn't do that. You wouldn't do that. You don't you're saying I don't have to talk about it anymore because nobody does it. Yeah, I'm I'm starting to think about it. I'm start I would consider that. Maybe it's already it's overall because nobody's doing it. I hear that. Anyway, um then ah but he says Hashem in his mercy deals and engages with this world because we're full of sin dominates us. God's great mercy. He judges this world daily. And then Hashem sees that we're worthy of destruction. So he's and then Hashem feeds this world in his and he's because if he wouldn't then he won't be able to feed us. So first God judges us. He gives us a compassionate judgment and then Hashem feeds us. So that might be another uh reason why uh our world is created first. Our world is judged first. He then says something that we don't really know too much about what these worlds are like. He says, "Let's see if we could find it. We're not that clear. We can't really definitively explain what these worlds are like. But one thing's for sure, there are those who think in their heart and they say these 18,000 words They surround our world in our galaxy. There's no way these 18,000 worlds are in our galaxy. The logic does not accept. In other words, those worlds are in no way similar in any sense to our world. The bottom line is that the first discussion and the possibility of life and intelligent life that was ever discussed was by Rabuda Barceloni of 11th century Spain. And he definitely entertains a possibility that there is life on other worlds and there is even intelligent life. But he says maybe they were not given the Tory which clearly implies maybe they weren't. But on the other hand, maybe they were and likewise another very early source in Rabbi Kaplan's article uh he says the first discuss discussion of intelligent life on other planets was mentioned by Rab Kazdai Krescas who lived from 1340 to 1410 in his safer arashem by Rabbi Barceloni and Krescas concludes as follows. He says there is no definitive proof whether there is or there isn't intelligent life whether other worlds exist or not. It's a possibility. And he says, "Do not be quick to dismiss the evidence of the garra that we just read in that there are 18,000 worlds that Hashem flies through. And why does Hashem fly through through those worlds?" Presumably to sustain those worlds and to give them divine providence and to feed them, which would seemingly indicate that if they need food and they need sustenance, then they're alive. says the it is clear it's already clear that there is no in anything we mentioned whether supportive or detracting that can support the notion of whether there is or is not life. He says we should not distance oursel from the of what says from here we see that God flies through the 18,000 worlds. The intention is that God's divine providence floats in all of those worlds and this is what that gamorrah indicates. So on the one handas they certainly more than entertain the possibility of other worlds perhaps even life on other worlds. And ude Barcelona says goes so far as to say maybe even those worlds could have Tyra and we'll just end with the uh converse opinion and that's the opinion attributed to Safarim quoted by Safer Habas of Revitz I believe of VNA that um the says in his opinion he's afraid to say there is no life on any other world that that is the view of the safer rabbo. So let's um let's read the words inside and then we'll pick it up here next week. With this meaning with this with my arguments against life on other planets this removes the fear that the was afraid. He said, "I'm afraid that it not be said that there are other worlds." That there are other worlds. Now, why why is he afraid? Why is it logical that there aren't other worlds? So, he says something uh amazing. He says, "Why is it why is why does it have to be that there aren't other worlds?" Look what he says. Because they can't have free choice. Why not? Because the world was created for man. So it was created for man. Only man could have free choice. And therefore, not only could they not have free choice, they can't even be serving us because the creations of this world are here to serve us. The cow serves us. So these aliens, they can't have free choice because only man can have free choice. They can't be here to serve us because the creations of this world are to serve us. So then why would God create them? You know why? Cuz he didn't. He didn't create them. The very says there is no life on any other planet. So that's the starting point of today's shir. We have the opinion of rael and aaz. They acknowledge the realistic possibility of life on other planets while the safe rejects it. And then next week we'll um discover there is an in between view between the two views that there is a possibility of intelligent life with free choice and the other a possibility there's no life at all. there. We'll present an in between view and we'll explore um some of the cababalistic aspects of could God have created another species that has free choice and that has good and bad and that has Tory or is it a tenant of our amuna that there's only one Tory that Hashem gave one people and then Bezos We'll we'll discuss some of the more contemporary views on the topic. We'll discuss theamifer's opinion of the geomet geocentric universe. We'll discuss the opinion of Rabbi Kaken Cook about life on other planets. The labrebba revolves harra mayor Isaacson rebitz and the gates head rashiva rebla gurowitz okay so stay tuned and like I told you in the meantime meanwhile if you're walking down the street and you see a flying saucer if it has four light beams you're okay you're good if it has five light beams get inside immediately, especially um in the night time. Okay, everyone have a wonderful day. >> Thank you. Thank you. You too. Thank [laughter] you. Thank you.