Review: Space Torah: Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman’s Cosmic Mitzvah
Space Torah: Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman’s Cosmic Mitzvah by Rachelle Burk, illustrated by Craig Orback Intergalactic Afikomen, 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Space Torah tells the story of astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew into space five times between 1985 and 1996. In its opening pages, this beautiful picture book brings readers back to Hoffman’s childhood and adolescence, when his dreams of going into space begin in earnest. When he is finally able to join a space mission, he feels profound peace and gratitude in the vastness of the cosmos and thinks about God being up there with him. He even brings Jewish items with him on his missions- a siddur, a dreidel, a mezuzah. On his flight on the space shuttle Columbia, he brings a miniature Torah scroll and as he floats in zero gravity, he performs the mitzvah of reading from the Torah. Space Torah ’s strength comes from the way it shows the deep connection that Hoffman feels between himself a