B”H
All my life I have been a book freak. I love books and read anything from thriller, science, fiction up to Jewish religious literature. Talmud, Halacha, Rambam, Ramban, Vilna Gaon, Chassidut, Philosophy, etc. What I don’t read at all is junk such as love stories and fantasy. What I read at the moment is WOOL by Hugh Howey.
The English as well as the German speaking book market is flooded with all kinds of time travel novels. Reading those books has become extremely popular and, especially Diana Gabaldon has sold millions of books. However, I also like historical novels written by Ken Follett.
Lets admit. Who hasn’t dreamt of going back in time and see how live was in the early and late Middle Ages. The times when the Romans ruled or seeing Avraham and Moshe. If I had the choice, I would try to meet Adam Harishon and Eve (Chava). The people I most identify with because most things in their lives just went wrong.
When we imagine going back in time, we mostly have a rather romantic vision of how the past used to be. Hardly anyone may be taking all the difficulties into consideration. The Romans weren’t that nice and chopped off heads, the Inquisition, the church, the Plague or wars. It also seems much more popular to dream about going back in time than having a glance into the future. Simply because we know the past and what to expect but a look into the future could scare us.
What does Judaism have to say about time travel and are there such things as parallel universes ?
As the subject remains extremely popular I am publishing an older article providing you with some answers:
Who does not remember the popular series “Sliders” where some youngsters were traveling through different dimensions and parallel universes. I enjoyed watching “Sliders” very much and who of us does not sometimes dream about traveling through space or universes. If the “Sliders” – theory was correct, each of us would have his exact counterpart in a different universe. Imagine that you might exist several times. Each of your personality in another universe. Here you are rich and have a good job, there you are Mr President and somewhere else you are a mass murderer (G – d forbid).
Mankind has been and still is always curious and as soon as we watch a Science Fiction movie our imagination is running away. Wouldn’t it be great to travel to another universe and meet our counterpart ? Our second personality looking exactly like me.
In Judaism, science and Torah go hand in hand and many rabbis were also famous mathematicians (Vilna Gaon), physicians, astronomers, etc. Just look at the Rambam and the Ramban. Orthodox Jews have not problem whatsoever with scientific facts or knowledge. On the contrary, as everything, including the Creation of the World, just shows G – d’s greatness and uniqueness.
There is a video on Youtube explaining the universe and at the end, other galaxies are being shown. Only by just looking at the pictures, one is aware that there is a perfect creator of all this; namely G – d Himself.
Today there are even scientific orthodox websites available:
http://www.torahscience.org/new.html
Our universe is infinite and why should there be no such things as parallel universes ? And why should we not have a twin somewhere else ? In case everything did exist and you decided to visit your second personality, your mission would be doomed to fail. According to the science magazine “Scientific American” (May 2003), other universes are simply too far away and it is impossible to reach them during our life time.
Scientists regard parallel universes as possible but Judaism does not even consider such an idea. G – d does not “travel” from universe to universe in order to give people the Torah. There is only one unique Torah. Our planet is unique and so is each of us. Just look at your DNA.
Jewish scientists do not speculate. The universe is infinite but nothing was created as we are. The Kabbalah confirms this opinion. Each soul (neshama) was created individually and it is out of question that someone else being also me could have the same Neshama as I do. People usually do not share Neshamot (I am leaving out the reincarnation subject here). It is only the owner of that particular soul who can elevate his Neshama by keeping Torah Mitzvot.
On the other hand, there exist a theory in Kabbalah about G – d’s spiritual worlds. Such spiritual worlds do not physically exist but only do so in our minds. It is said about Adam HaRishon that right after his creation, he contained all the souls of all the spiritual worlds. As soon as he sinned, most higher Neshamot left his body.
The kabbalistic book “Sefer HaBrit” mentions a planet called “Meroz”. According to some opinions, there are people living on Meroz. (Do not imagine tiny green aliens now!!!)
“Sefer HaBrit” continues that even thou people existed on Meroz, they would not have a free will as we have. They were simply puppets of their creator (G – d). However, other sources on Talmud Moed Katan 16a and Shevuot 36a claim that Meroz is a people, a man or a constellation.
Honestly, I am not too keen on meeting my second, third or whatever personality. What would I gain from this and I don’t think that I would be too happy afterwards. It is already enough to know that after I die, I am being confronted with my “perfect” personality. This perfect counterpart is going to show me how much potential I had and what I lost by not using it. Therefore, we should rather concentrate on our lives in this world. Although, sometimes, I do like to dream and travel through space. At least while watching “Star Wars” or “Star Trek”.
meashearim.wordpress.com 
in the torah it talks about enoch and him being taken to the heavens, who took him? was it the people of meroz?? i would give everything away (money, friends, shelter) to know the truth about the world and even if judaism is even true
B”H
Various Midrashim tell us that G – d took him. One of the reasons is that, until then, Chanoch was free of sin but may have joined the people of this generation worshiping idols etc.
Regarding Meroz:
I wrote a bit on the subject in a previous article
http://shearim.blogspot.co.il/2011/07/aliens-in-judaism.html
Let me tell you, we humans will never know the truth about the world. It was G – d’s decision to create the universe and all living beings. Why ? Only He knows his reason and we can only speculate.
As a Jew I believe that Judaism is true. I don’t have a problem with people believing something else as long as they refrain from proselytizing Jews.
There are many people who think like you and I may have been one of them. However, we all have to get used to the fact that we will never know everything about this world. What you can do instead is looking for a purpose in this world and live your life. People who only look for reasons will fail finding them and only be depressed.