By Francis Temman
Cape Canaveral - How do you observe the Jewish sabbath when you are orbiting Earth, seeing the sun rise and set 16 times each 24-hour period?
This is the dilemma that Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut, will face after he blasts off into space on Thursday aboard the space shuttle Columbia.
The son of a survivor of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, Ramon said that during his 16-day space mission he would try to follow some Jewish traditions such as the Sabbath and kosher foods "if time permits".
Although a secular Jew, Ramon shows spiritual affinity and a deep respect for his people and their traditions.
"I'm not following the rules exactly. I'm secular in my background, but I'm going to respect all kinds of Jews all over the world," he said.
"As an Israeli and as a Jew, I asked Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) if it would be possible to supply kosher food for my menu in space," he said.
The US space agency had no problem in accommodating him. "I was surprised and overwhelmed with the effort Nasa put in trying to accommodate my request," he said.
Regarding the Sabbath, which Ramon said he wants to observe as "an act of solidarity with the Jewish tradition", things were not so easy.
The seventh day of the week set aside for rest and worship, is observed from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Practicing Jews observe the onset of the Sabbath with prayers, blessing bread and wine, lighting candles and stopping all work.
But at 280km above the Earth, everything is different. The "day" in orbit lasts a mere 90 minutes, the time it takes the shuttle traveling at 27 000km/h to circle the Earth. In other words, the sun rises and sets 16 times a day aboard the shuttle.
In strict adherence to tradition, Ramon would have to stop working every seventh orbit around the Earth, something impractical aboard the shuttle.
To solve the theological dilemma, Ramon turned to the highest religious authority he could find: the Hasidic rabbi of Satellite Beach, near Cape Canaveral.
While there have been other Jewish astronauts in the past - Dave Wolf celebrated Hanukkah aboard the Russian space station Mir - Ramon is the first one interested in observing the Sabbath.
"It was always reserved for a theoretical. This is the first time that it's actually happening," said rabbi Zvi Konikov, a member of the Hasidic Lubavitch group.
Through a colleague in New York, Konikov consulted a group of respected rabbis called "poskim", authorised to rule on such theological questions based on the Jewish halara (oral) tradition.
After long debate, the rabbis ruled that time is not measured by what a person sees as the rising and setting of the sun, but by an objective fact: the Earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours, Konikov explained.
Regardless of how quickly Ramon travels in orbit, the Earth continues to spin at the same speed, the venerable panel concluded.
So for Ramon, the day of rest will come every seventh day in orbit - an astonishing Sabbath with 16 sunsets that no Jew before him has ever observed.
Ramon and six other astronauts are scheduled to blast off aboard Columbia between 10am and 2pm on Thursday, on a 16-day mission to complete some 80 experiments on the effects of weightlessness, as well as observations of Earth's weather. - Sapa-AFP