When meeting Professor Velvl Greene for the first time, it's hard to imagine that the jovial, eighty-year-old, bearded Chabad chassid was once at the forefront of the newly developing National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) program.
"When people ask me how I became an observant Jew, I tell them that I'll drop them a line when I become one," Professor Greene says with his trademark smile. "I'm still a work in progress."
"But aren't you a chassid?" people ask in surprise.
"My wife always says," the professor answers, "the word 'chassid' is like the word 'intellectual'—someone else has to call you one!"
Professor Greene recently retired from his post as the Carlin Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at Ben Gurion University Medical School in Beer Sheva, and the director of its prestigious Lord Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical Ethics.
Over the course of his sixty-year-long distinguished academic career, Professor Greene spent many years as a professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, before he moved to Israel. He published more than ninety scientific papers, lectured and consulted around the world, and was one of the original participants in NASA's exobiology program.
Until recently he frequently traveled the world lecturing on Torah and science, inspiring his audiences with his warmth, knowledge and rich life experiences.
Velvl Greene was born in Winnipeg, Canada, to a staunchly Zionistic family. Although deeply proud of their Jewish heritage, they were completely uninformed about religious observance. As a result Greene grew up steeped in Jewish history and culture, and, most importantly, the Yiddish language. "We learned Yiddish, not Hebrew," he recalls. "Hebrew was for prayer, which we didn't do."
As an adolescent, Greene fell in love with the Yiddish poetry and literature of Bialik, Sholem Aleichem, and Peretz. He memorized a poem by Bialik, entitled If Your Soul Wants to Get to the Source, which spoke to his heart.
The poem discussed the secret of Jewish survival through the long, bitter exile. "When you come to the house of study, you are standing at the threshold of our very existence, and your eyes are looking into our soul," the poem read.
Many years later, when the professor first met the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi
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| Professor Greene in the 1960's. |
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of righteous memory, he recalled those words of Bialik. "This is what he meant by the threshold of Jewish existence and the secret of our survival. I have finally found authenticity. These are the Jews who sacrificed their lives for Judaism."
The first time the Rebbe met with Professor Greene privately, the professor mentioned that he'd heard searching for life on other planets wasn't an appropriate field of study for an observant Jew, as it contradicts the Torah's geocentric approach. The Rebbe thought deeply for a few minutes and said, "Keep looking. To sit here, and not look, and say there is nothing out there, is placing a limit on G‑d's creation. That you can't do!"
Later the Rebbe mentioned that in his line of work, Professor Greene must see and hear things about the workings of the world to which others are not privy. "Everything you see and hear is designed to bring you closer to G‑d. Keep a journal of everything you encounter during your studies and travels, and see if you can find the Divine message. If you can't find the Divine Providence, come to me and I will help you figure it out."
The Rebbe requested that the professor send him reports about his work at NASA.
Professor Greene still has a file of over thirty years' worth of correspondence with the Rebbe, about Torah and science, the Jewish community, and his personal life.
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