He felt he was flying this mission not as an individual, but as a representative of all of Klal Yisrael and he wanted to do it right: His hope was to keep Shabbos and kosher in space
Armed with the objects of kedushah and pure hopes, Ramon went up — and his soul remained there. Just 48 years old, he lost his life when the space shuttle met its fiery end on that Saturday winter morning of February 1, 2003: The Columbia had a re-entry failure and its crew was killed sixteen minutes before its scheduled landing.
A week after the crash, the next Friday morning at exactly 9:16 a.m., there was a massive memorial event for all the NASA people on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center. Rabbi Konikov was asked to speak. “People were so sad, really broken, soul-searching and rethinking their whole worldview, wondering if it was all worth it,” Rabbi Konikov flashes back. “What could I say in five minutes that would inspire them, that would be a tribute to Ilan, and also give guidance to the people in the space industry in general?”
“Ilan Ramon turned to me with a question,” the rabbi recalls. “He asked, ‘How does one mark the Sabbath in space with every 90 minutes another sunset, every ten and a half hours is a Sabbath, every 20 days Rosh Hashanah?’ Jerusalem, we have a problem. So I had my homework to do. But Ilan taught us a powerful message: No matter how fast we’re going, no matter how important our work, we need to pause and think about why we’re here on Earth.”
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