Spock beams into God's feminine side

The actor best known for his portrayal of Mr Spock in Star Trek is rapidly attracting attention as a photographer for pictures which try to depict the “feminine presence of God”.

Leonard Nimoy left the big screen to pursue other interests, most notably photography.

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

They are what Nimoy calls the “embodiment of Shekhina – the feminine presence of God”.

In 2002, he published Shekhina, a book of about 40 photographs that explore his interest in the feminine aspects of Jewish divinity.

Many are currently displayed at the R Michelson art galleries in n Northampton, Massachusetts.

“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.”

The idea was planted with Nimoy when he was about eight.

He recalled that as a child, during part of high holiday services at his Orthodox synagogue in Boston, members of the congregation stood before the assembly to deliver a special blessing.

He 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 Star Trek.

The hand symbol represents the first letter of a Hebrew word for God.

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

For decades, Nimoy didn’t know why the congregation was not supposed to look as the blessing was being given. A few years ago, he finally asked the rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood, the reform synagogue he now attends.

“There’s a legend that the Shekhina – the feminine aspect of God – comes in to bless the congregation,” Nimoy said.

“But the light from the Shekhina could be overwhelming and you could not survive it, so you shouldn’t look. I was taken by that when I heard the explanation.”

In his photos – including models, actresses and his wife Susan Bay Nimoy, he probes his understanding of Shekhina and tries to bring out the “inner life” of his subjects.

Using nude and partly clad female models wearing Jewish prayer accessories traditionally worn by men ignited controversy in some parts of the Jewish community.

But his photos have been well received at many Reform synagogues and at art galleries and museums around the US.