When people asked Rabbi Feller what I do, he told them, “He works for NASA and he is looking for life on Mars.”

Other chassidim said, “You mustn’t—assur—it’s forbidden.”

So Rabbi Feller said to me, “There are those people who think you shouldn’t be doing this kind of work. Why don’t you ask the Rebbe?”

I did. While we were talking, I said, “You know, there are those of your followers who say that a Jew should not be working in the Space Biology program, because it goes contrary to Torah.”

The Rebbe stopped—one of those beautiful moments in time—he didn’t smile, he just thought, and then he pointed at me and he said in Yiddish, “You should look for life on Mars, and you should keep looking. And if you don’t find it, keep looking elsewhere and elsewhere, because to sit here in this world and say there is no life elsewhere is to put a limit around what G‑d can do—and that nobody can do.”