How I Became the Sci-Fi Rabbi – thescifirabbi.com

In Judaism, names have power. It’s a teaching that I feel very personally.

One of my names – The Sci-Fi Rabbi – was given to me as I was ordained at Hebrew College. Standing before the school community, my friends, and my family, Rabbi Or Rose read my te’udat smicha (ordination document) aloud and then declared: “I now proclaim you a Rabbi in Israel…and Jedi Knight.” There was a moment of shocked silence as the room – and I – absorbed the additional title. And then we broke into laughter and cheers.

At lunch, I joked about getting business cards with “Jedi Rabbi” printed on them. But by the time dessert was served, I was taking the idea more seriously. I loved Star Wars, but I loved so much more – science fiction, fantasy, and everything in between. Before we stood up from the table, I had a new name. The Sci-Fi Rabbi.

Long before I became a bar mitzvah, I read Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question.” Its vast scope and surprise biblical ending touched me deeply. When I discussed it with my parents, they told me that Asimov took his Jewish heritage very much to heart. It hadn’t occurred to me that an author might choose to express their background in their work and I wondered which of my other favorite authors were Jewish.

I went to our home library and looked closely at the books. Peter Beagle. Harlan Ellison. Robert Silverberg. Jane Yolen. These authors often wove a thread of their Jewish values through their stories. From them I learned that asking questions yields wisdom, violence is rarely the best answer, and strength can be found in community. Around the same time, I learned that Leonard Nimoy was Jewish, and my affection for Spock made sense on a whole new level.

A little later, I read William Tenn’s story “On Venus, Have We Got a Rabbi!” It felt like a tale by Isaac Bashevis Singer or Sholem Aleichem, yet it was clearly science fiction. That was when I began to realize that Jewish fiction could also be speculative fiction, whether sci-fi, fantasy, or even horror. I was hooked.

My breakthrough came in 1987 at Creation Boston, a sci-fi convention, when I bought a copy of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction. There I read “Robot Dreams” – Asimov’s reworking of the encounter between Moses and Pharaoh – reshaped in fascinating and challenging ways. Holding that magazine, which still sits on my shelf, I understood that science fiction could function as midrash, helping me to find new meaning and wisdom in our ancient stories.

Years later, I carried that discovery into my graduate work. Exploring the intersection of Judaism, science fiction, and science fact, I wrote a paper on when to welcome Shabbat in exotic and even off-world environments. For my Master’s in Jewish Studies, I wrote a thesis on Elijah the prophet, who inspired any number of famous characters, including Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Long before I became a rabbi, I offered classes on Jewish speculative fiction. Again and again, I found that every community held readers and fans who had kept their Jewish identity and their geek credentials completely separate. Bringing them into conversation together was a revelation for them. I remember seeing a student’s face light up with joy when she learned that some of the best lines in The Princess Bride were delivered by Jewish actors, from a script by a Jewish author.

By the time Rabbi Or spoke on the bimah, I was well on the path to becoming The Sci-Fi Rabbi. I just needed someone to say it out loud for me.

I kept teaching Jewish speculative fiction wherever people invited me to speak across New England. Much to my delight, my students started calling me their “Sci-Fi Rabbi” with affection. When I told my first congregation that I planned to begin work on an anthology of Jewish speculative fiction during a mini-sabbatical, one of my board members nodded and said, “Yep, that’s our rabbi.”

When I came to Congregation Beth El in Sudbury in 2018, I brought the name with me from the Berkshires.[1] Over the years, my role as The Sci-Fi Rabbi has only grown. I appeared in Fiddler on the Moon, a documentary short about Jews in space that later started streaming on PBS, and I began teaching monthly Jewish speculative fiction classes at Lehrhaus in Somerville. During the COVID lockdowns, my spouse, Stephanie, and I began co-hosting our Jewish Book Club, where we’ve read works from classic sci-fi to contemporary writers like Lavie Tidhar and Sacha Lamb. We still meet, drawing participants across the nation and from three countries. And I always love speaking with congregants and new friends who want to know how Judaism’s ancient wisdom can help us prepare for the future with open eyes.

Names have power. I’ve been growing into this one for a long time now.

I hope you’ll wander with me.

[1] “A religious force,” Wicked Local / Sudbury Town Crier, Aug. 3, 2018.