The Other Shoe

Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame has a new hobby:

The women appear aglow; black and white images bathed in light. Some are nude, others are loosely covered with translucent robes or Jewish prayer shawls.

The old translucent robe trick, eh...

They are Leonard Nimoy's embodiment of Shekhina, the feminine presence of God.

Best known as Mr. Spock in Star Trek, Nimoy left the screen to pursue other interests, most notably, photography.

At the heart of it all is the fact that I was trying to really completely enter into the world of the feminine, says Nimoy, 73. I didn’t want to do misty, cloudy figures. I didn't want to shroud her. I wanted to make her flesh and blood, and I wanted to make her definitively female.

It's an idea that was planted with Nimoy when he was about 8, although he didn't fully realize it until a few years ago. During a segment of high holiday services at his Orthodox synagogue in Boston, members of the congregation stood before the assembly to deliver a special blessing. Standing with his brother, father and grandfather, Nimoy was told not to look at the men as they chanted the prayer.

But he took a peek, and saw the men swaying with their arms outstretched and their hands splayed in the manner he would later use as the Vulcan greeting in his Star Trek role. The hand symbol represents the first letter of a Hebrew word for God.

"These gentlemen are up there in a fervent, singsong, swaying presentation,Ni moy said. "It was like a revivalist meeting. The entire congregation had their eyes covered. But I was entranced by it."

I heard Nimoy speak in the late 70's and he mentioned the origin of the Vulcan hand sign even then. Clearly, he has been thinking along these lines for many years.

Nimoy's work is, in my judgment, pretty durned good. You can see the rest of it here.

Fascinating.

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• #1 Comment from jamescc76 
  5/19/04 10:26 PM | Permalink

  Pretty durned good indeed.