SHEKHINA: Pictures, Poems and Prose

In the beginning a camera is projected on the screen, the kind of camera he had used in the 1940s., and nearly for the whole evening the stage remains dark. All attention is focused on the slides and Leonard Nimoy is hardly seen when he talks to the audience from a side of the stage.

The evening centers around Shekhina – the presence of God. (s.: "Books – Shekhina") 

Leonard Nimoy begins to tell the audience about the origins of his love for photography: As an 11 year old boy he had already begun to take photos and developed them in the family's bath he turned into a darkroom. 
He showed us a photo he had taken of his grandfather and a photo dating 1971 he had taken in Spain while shooting Catlow. 

Referring to the presence of God revealing herself in the flesh, in light or movement, he begins to share his "Shekhina" (the dwelling of God, the presence) with the audience. It is a female word written in the bible when it comes to God's presence in us. Shekhina is a project he worked on for the last nine years (i. e. since + / - 1995). 
Sharing his very personal spiritual insights (s. "Books – Shekhina") he shows images of women as natural as they are, partly covered by white cloths and in motion. 

Sometimes in clear separation of light and darkness, sometimes in interwoven appearance the Shekhina hides and reveals herself, basically, truly and in all her warmth and gentleness. 

One picture shows her directly looking at him. This, he says, was the first picture he took with the Shekhina doing this. Before he had had too much respect to dare shooting direct eye contact. 

The idea developed from experiencing the letter "shin" in an Orthodox Jewish service when Leonard was 8 or 9 years old. 
Shin symbolizes the Shekhina and is used as a sign of blessing. The blessing is shouted onto the congregation while the Khohanim form the shin with both hands. 
Leonard then puts on the prayer shawl and recites all verses: Lev., 4: 6 ff. in Hebrew and adds some other verses to it, shouting the blessing onto the audience like it is done in the synagogues. This blessing is followed by applause – the only way a crowd can indicate appreciation as impropriete as it might seem for such an occasion. 

With more slides, most of them taken from the book "Shekhina", he allows the audience to get closer to his Shekhina by explaining his relationship to the photography of light and movement with the female body, sometimes covered, sometimes revealed. Leonard ends the show by reading "I am an incurable romantic". 
After he shares his Shekhina, he offers a chance to talk about his latest work.