[Avodah] Torah precheit

[Arie Folger]

RAM and RMB have been arguing about whether aliens somewhere out there
could have received a Revelation akin to ours and whether theirs would be
one of shiv'im panim la-Torah.

My USD0.02c:

I believe that it is not unimportant that according to present theories of
physics, we are constrained by how far we could ever travel. Even if we
were to remain happy with slower than light travel, travelling at the
phenomenal speeds necessary to get anywhere else in our own galaxy where
aliens might live, i.e. in another star system with planets in the
habitable zone, would use up phenomenal amounts of energy. Furthermore, the
distances are so vast, that we would need enormous (what's the trendy word
variant, ginormous?) amounts of time, and we still hardly would get
anywhere.

Bottom line, there very well may exist intelligent aliens out there, but we
are near 100% sure that we will never ever be able to meet them.

Which leads me to the following observation: If there are aliens out there
which we will one day meet, then we could not accept their *competing*
Revelation. There is only one 'am hanivchar. We would indeed need to see
them as a special kind of Noachides with a possible true revelation that
is, however, subordinate to ours and can never contradict it.

If, however, we consider aliens whom we will never ever be able to meet, I
see no reason why they couldn't have their own Revelation, with their own
Torah, which, while it surely will agree in all iqarim, may nonetheless,
through a variety of mechanisms suggested by mefarshim throughout the ages
(including but not limited to the Ramban's Torah without spaces, and the
expansion thereof by later mequbalim that the Heavenly Torah has 23
letters, of which we only see 22), be quite different from ours.

I do wonder though, can there be an alien civilization we will one day
encounter in person, which has exactly the same Torah as we do. It would
seem extremely improbable for them to have had an Avraham, Yitzchak &
Yaakov, Shevatim & galut Mitzrayim, but hey, if this is predetermined in
part, then why not? The question will then be, are they and us the same
people (in the assumption that it is even physically possible to
intermarry)? I consider this whole possibility even less likely than the
one about meeting any aliens anywhere, so this is just an thought
experiment.

Kol tuv,

-- 
Arie Folger
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