Greater Talent Network

I have often been asked: "Is there Judaism in Star Trek?"
Let me put it this way: If education, valuable education, is a Jewish thing, then yes, there is Judaism in Star Trek. Star Trek values education very highly. If you think about it, all the people on the Enterprise are highly educated people. If social justice is a Jewish thing, there is Judaism in Star Trek because Star Trek values social justice. How about tolerance for the individual? How about dignity for the individual? How about charity and compassion for those in need? These are traces that are expressed in Star Trek constantly, Jewish traces.

And the answer is: Yes, there is a lot of Jewishness in Star Trek. And I felt very much at home because of that... and on top of all of that I was cast in this alienated character.
I grew up in Boston, a very catholic city, I grew up thinking that I was the other. When I grew up I remember y parents and friends talking to each other - I must have been six or seven years old, when I've heard it, I couldn't understand what they were talking about - when they said a catholic will never be elected in the United States. I thought except for us few Jews the whole world was catholic. I knew what it felt like to be the other, the outsider.

And that was the Spock - character... Spock is half Vulcan and half human for those who don't know, - there must be somebody who does not know about Spock.
So, he's half Vulcan and half human. His mother is human, his father is Vulcan. So, he does not really belong here. On Vulcan he's not a Vulcan kid and on earth he's a stranger with pointed ears. So he chooses this other environment, this federation, this Star Fleet, to become a member of, to live there.

Because there they accept diversity, they accept the diversity, they accept diversity for the individual and he can find a home for himself.
Spock is a di So even as a kid on Vulcan he did does not belong here, he's a half bread. disparate character and I felt at home playing him, a wonderful opportunity to live inside this skin of this character which I really enjoyed because I knew who he was.

And then came the day when we were going to Vulcan, a wonderful script written by a great science fiction writer, Theodore Sturgeon, the script was called Amok Time.
The first time the words "Live long and prosper" were written... (Explaining the plot of Amok Time)... I was looking for that scene where we introduce a special Vulcan greeting. I was looking for opportunities to inject ritual ideas or thoughts or whatever and here we have this greeting scene. And I said to the director: "We should do something special when we shot this greeting scene on Vulcan ... Humans shake hands when they meet, Asian people bow to each other, what do Vulcans do?"

And I reached into my Judaism. (Sharing his experiences in the synagogue when the Kohanim were blessing the congregation)

A powerful theatrical event takes place: They get up there and they say the prayer which is in the Old and the New Testament: "Jiberach Adonai wjischmarech", May the Lord bless you and keep you, may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you, may the Lord turn his graciousness onto you and grant you peace."

They don't just say it. In those days in the orthodox school where I grew up there was a whole magical event I want to show you to give you some sense how it was like, (Leonard fetches his tallit/prayer shawl) like this:

And they are swinging and chanting and the leader would shout: "Ej jeeehoh" and the rest would shout: "Ej Jeho wjisbarecha" it was quite an event and my dad would say to me: "Don't look!". The whole congregation was looking away, got their heads bowed looking away.
For the reason I have asked many rabies throughout the years and my personal rabbi said to me: "Look, this is a very important spiritual moment. This is a magical moment because the believe is that, when they do it in chantation with prayer, the Shekhina, the essence of God, enters the sanctuary, a very important, spiritual moment.
And as we all know the image, the essence of God is so powerful in sight a human could not survive if you saw it. So, you don't look to save your life."

But I peeked. And I survived. And I saw these guys doing this and I had no idea what they were doing.
(Explaining and showing the gesture of the Kohanim holding up their hands forming the letter Shin) I don't know why, but I felt compelled to learn how to do that and I worked on it. Diligent practice and self denial, I worked on it until I was able to do it with both hands... I never dreamed it would come in handy some day.
But I said to the director: Suppose Vulcans do this (making the sign)... Celia Lovsky could not do it, but I felt we have got to get this into the show... she held her hand doing the sign outside the camera and when I raised my hand, she raised hers. And that's how we got it into the show.