Often I joke about how I want to travel to Mars. Maybe open the first Chabad house there or perhaps a Synagogue. Though it would take a long time to get there and I’m not sure I’d get ten men for a minyan. And anyway here is a Jewish Joke about Mars that I received from a women named Susie.

Two astronauts land on Mars. Their mission: to check whether there is oxygen on the planet. ‘Give me the box of matches,’ says one. ‘Either it burns to some degree and we will be able to tell if there is any oxygen, or nothing happens.’

He takes the box, and is ready to strike a match when, out of the blue, a Martian appears waving all his arms… ’No, no, don’t!’

The two guys look at each other, worried. Could there be an unknown explosive gas on Mars? Nothing indicated it would have great quantities of methane or sulphur gases.

Still, he takes another match…. and…a crowd of hysterical Martians is coming, all waving their arms:

‘No, no, don’t do that!’

One of the astronauts says, ’This looks serious. What are they afraid of? Nonetheless, we’re here for Science, and this is our first experiment on Mars’.

So he strikes a match — which barely flames up, burns down, and…. nothing happens.

So he turns to the Martians and asks, ’Why did you want to prevent us from striking a match?’

The leader of the Martians, shaking his head, says,

“It’s Shabbos, you idiot!”