|
Host: Bill Thompson
Leonard Nimoy recently has been collecting applause punctuated with a little
controversy by his fine-art photographs. His photos portray women some of
which are wearing noting but ritual Jewish prayer items. Nimoy calls his
book "Shekhina".
LN: "Shekhina is the name of the feminine aspect of divinity according to Jewish Mysticism which is
called Kabbalah. It has been around the first or second century of the common area, when the Shekhina split
of the male version of God and came to live with the humans...
It is in the readings around the bible... In the beginning God was all, was everything and everywhere and
God made the decision to create the universe and withdrew part of himself to make space for creation.
When He did that
a lot of things happened including the allowance for evil to come into that space. Where spiritual energy, which was
gathered in vessels, became too powerful for the vessels, and shattered the vessels and scattered throughout the universe,
so various things happened.
One of the aspects was that God splitting of, we
have evil in the world creating chaos, we have the spiritual energy which
spread throughout the universe which eventually began to be gathered in
order for the world to be healed."
After having heard all that... and I ask this very respectfully, what do naked women have to do with God and religion?
LN: "Well, the images are of women, not all naked, there are a few nudes in, and some suggested
partial nudity in the book, particularly of interest is the fact that these women, this figure, is a ivinity
and is wearing a parallels associated particularly with the Jewish male, and
that's become the issue that has created some discussion… because the
traditionalists are opposing the idea that women should wear the prayer
shawl and...
Women have been held in a secondary position. This book
makes a strong feminist statement, it is trying to elevate women in a higher
position."
Leonard Nimoy goes on sharing about his experience in the
synagogue, when he was watching the Kohanim blessing the congregation. The fingers split into the
letter shin which represents the presence Shaddai. (The presence of God in the congregation.)
The host comments about the technical knowledge Leonard needs to have when shooting the photos.
"I have
been at this for a long time. About 30 years ago I actually thought about changing careers...
I studied intensely at UCLA, but what I really wanted to do, but I did not
want to do commercial photography but fine-art photography and translated
that I could not do a living with that."
"People have been asking me why doesn't she have a different body shape, a
different age, a different color. Well, I can only take a certain amount of
issue here. I can't handle all of the feminist issues here."
|
