In Steven Spielberg’s new film “Disclosure Day,” the Pentagon is exposed as hiding the proof of extraterrestrial life.
My reaction was to ask: What can we learn from the fact that we are not alone? It would be hubristic to imagine the Creator of an infinite universe fashioned only one outpost of conscious life. However, the existence of aliens proves what was disclosed by our sages millennia ago: Everything—humans, aliens, stars and quarks—is a manifestation of the single infinite consciousness of the Divine.
We are not biological creatures but living expressions of the One. Each soul contains the entire universe in miniature. The journey of every human being is to expand the drop until it knows itself as the ocean. This is what the Psalms affirm when it declares that all are children of the Most High.
This unity carries profound moral implications. In the vast ocean of divine consciousness, thoughts arise just as they do in our own minds. The critical difference is responsibility. God’s thoughts become reality instantly. Ours do not—at least, not yet. The gap between thought and manifestation exists so that we may learn accountability.
Spielberg’s aliens, with their advanced telepathy, remind us that empathy must precede telepathy and other super-powers. In the film, Emily Blunt’s character gains access to the aliens’ power and sees instantly the root of suffering in every person. That is no sci-fi gimmick. It is the Torah’s central commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” because your neighbor is another expression of the same self.
Another takeaway from the movie is that higher civilizations do not invade or exploit lower ones to harm them. The primary law of the universe—love—forbids it. Classic alien invasion fantasies like “War of the Worlds” or “Independence Day” are projections of human fear, not cosmic reality. Visitors come as mentors, not conquerors. Spielberg’s aliens’ interest in nuclear sites and military installations suggests guardianship. They want to prevent the children from destroying the playground.
Moreover, the aliens are a living hint of the ultimate goal we must achieve, the ultimate energy we can develop: chesed (“lovingkindness”) fused in the collider of the heart with gevurah (“restraint and judgment”), producing the ultimate power of tiferet (“harmonious beauty”).
Another theme is the childish human desire for a “close encounter” with the non-human. Kids, we had it! The Sinai revelation was humanity’s “close encounter of the highest kind.” While we scan the skies with radio telescopes, the clearest signal was received at Sinai, and everyone can still receive it everywhere in prayer.
The path to higher capacities is not technological but moral. Rockets to Mars are impressive but secondary. The real frontier is the development of innate divine empathy and the wisdom to act on it effectively. An example close to home: the left displays empathy for Palestinian suffering in a manner that fails the test of gevurah, the clear-eyed discernment that locates the root of that suffering in the systemic failures of political Islam, not in Israel’s existence.
The Sinai revelation was humanity’s “close encounter of the highest kind.”
“Disclosure Day” warns us that spiritual and psychic maturation must precede technological leaps. Advanced civilizations earn their starships only when their empathy, wisdom and responsibility ensure they will not harm less developed neighbors. In the film, the 1947 Roswell crash illustrates the point: humanity tried reverse-engineering without the corresponding spiritual development and, predictably, failed.
Ironically, these aliens may be the biblical “sons of God” who mated with “daughters of men,” making modern humans a hybrid of extraterrestrial and Neanderthal. Intriguing as myth, it changes nothing regarding the ultimate goal we face as humans.
Every morning, the Jewish man performs a symbolic attainment of this ultimate human goal: returning to the Source, to the Garden of Eden, by exchanging “garments of skin” for “garments of light.”
He wraps himself in the tallit, the white shawl symbolizing the infinite radiance of the Source. Its tzitzit fringes are more meaningful than any beam from a flying saucer, reminding us that every soul emerges from the same ocean of light, diffracts into individuality and must ultimately reunite. The 10 windings of the tefillin straps echo 10 stages of descent and the 10 we must climb on the way back.
“Disclosure Day” ultimately disappoints apocalyptic enthusiasts. There is no sudden end of the world, no mass dimensional shift, no overnight salvation. The Messiah will not descend to fix everything magically. Redemption is the slow, painful, incremental elevation of consciousness.
This consciousness begins in Israel and radiates outward. It demands sweat, blood, tears of sorrow and tears of joy. The arena of our mission is not Mars, but the broken places of Earth: Africa, Asia and beyond, where empathy, strength and wisdom are desperately needed.
But mass migration from regions lacking basic civic responsibility will not be solved by Starlink or smartphones. What is required is a wise, empathetic engagement backed by force that builds conditions for people in the Third World to thrive at home rather than flee and transform Europe into Africa and the United States into Mexico. This is harder than interstellar travel.
Finally, there is gratitude. Thank God for the aliens. They serve as cosmic mirrors, reflecting our own untapped potential. Our AI enthusiasts—the Elon Musks of the world—are talented but incomplete if they believe technology alone can redeem humanity. The real work is changing the human heart, and it remains an uphill battle.
In the film’s final moment, after the alien communicates, an anchorwoman steps before the camera and says: “Listen … .” The screen cuts to black.
Here, Spielberg is winking at us. The final word and the ultimate message from aliens are the same as at Sinai: Shema. Listen. It is not just that there are no other gods. There is nothing but God. You are a living part of Him. He lives and speaks through you. Listen!
