The Far Side of the Moon: A Torah Thought on Artemis II

This week, humanity did something extraordinary: For the first time in more than half a century, human beings traveled around the far side of the moon.

By Rabbi Anchelle Perl

This week, humanity did something extraordinary.

For the first time in more than half a century, human beings traveled around the far side of the moon. The astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — flew farther from Earth than anyone in history, reaching a distance of 252,756 miles.

And in doing so, they saw something no human being had ever seen before: the hidden face of the moon.

It turns out, it looks unfamiliar.

“The darker parts just aren’t quite in the right place,” astronaut Christina Koch said from inside the Orion capsule. “Something about you senses that is not the moon that I’m used to seeing.”

That moment — part wonder, part disorientation — captures something essential about the human condition. We are deeply attached to what we recognize. We build our sense of reality around what is familiar. And yet, just beyond our line of sight, there is often another side — equally real, but unseen.

Rabbi Anchelle Perl of Chabad of Mineola believes that is precisely the point.
“The moon always had two faces,” he said. “We just couldn’t see both at once — until now.”
Every system — scientific, personal, historical — has both a visible layer and a hidden one. What we see is not the whole story. It never was.

In Jewish thought, this idea is ancient. Rabbi Perl frames it in the language of mysticism: “Everything has a revealed face and a hidden face. The astronauts didn’t change the moon — they changed their vantage point.”

That may be the most important takeaway from Artemis II. Discovery is not only about going somewhere new. It is about seeing what was always there — differently.
The astronauts themselves seemed to sense this. Asked to describe the mission in a single word, Koch chose: “humility.”
“Humility is exactly right,” Rabbi Perl said. “The greatest human achievements don’t make us feel bigger. They remind us how small we are — and how vast the universe is.”

In a time when technology often amplifies human ego, space exploration still has the power to do the opposite. It shrinks us — not in a diminishing way, but in a clarifying one. It places us in context.
One image from the mission captures that perfectly: Earth, seen from deep space, as a thin blue crescent suspended in darkness. Fragile. Distant. Alone.
Some viewers found it unsettling. Rabbi Perl did not.

“That image doesn’t frighten me,” he said. “It does the opposite. It reminds me that something so small can still matter so much.”

You don’t need to be religious to feel that. In fact, the image invites a universal response: awe, responsibility, and perhaps a renewed sense of perspective.
And then there is the timing.

The Artemis II mission comes during Passover — a holiday rooted in the idea of transformation. Not just political or physical liberation, but a shift in perception: from narrowness to possibility, from confinement to openness.

“The Hebrew word for Egypt is connected to the idea of constriction,” Rabbi Perl noted. “Passover is about realizing that what you thought was the whole picture… isn’t.”

Whether in personal life or global history, there are moments when everything feels fixed — when the “near side” of reality is all we can see. And then something shifts. A new angle. A new understanding. Suddenly, what was hidden becomes visible.

That’s what Artemis II offered — not just data or images, but perspective.
The astronauts circled the moon and revealed its far side. But perhaps the deeper achievement is what they revealed about us.

We are still explorers. Still seekers. Still capable of wonder.

And, as Rabbi Perl adds, that instinct to explore is not only scientific — it is deeply human and, in his view, deeply spiritual.

“The Lubavitcher Rebbe often spoke about humanity’s push into space,” Rabbi Perl said. “He saw it not as a challenge to faith, but as an expression of it — the idea that human beings are meant to go beyond their limits, to discover what was hidden within creation.”

The Rebbe also emphasized that progress in science should be matched by growth in purpose.

“Advancement alone is not enough,” Rabbi Perl explained. “The question is: what do we do with what we discover? Do we use it to deepen our sense of responsibility, of unity, of meaning?”

That balance — between expansion and humility — may be the quiet message of this moment.

“The hidden side was always there,” Rabbi Perl said. “We just needed the courage — and the curiosity — to go far enough to see it.”

And perhaps, as humanity looks outward to the far reaches of space, it is also being invited to look inward — to discover the unseen dimensions of its own purpose.

Because sometimes, the greatest discoveries are not just about what is out there.
They are about what we are finally ready to see.

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