Spock was Jewish...pass it on...

The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

                                     Numbers 6: 24-26 NRSVue

When I was an undergraduate student at Queen's University during the mid-1970s it seemed that the campus came to a virtual halt as the student body watched reruns of the Star Trek TV series. There were only three seasons with 79 original episodes but there have been multiple  films and an animated series to keep Star Trek alive. 

When I was at St, Andrew's United Church in Halifax the chaplain at Dalhousie University, a huge fan, joined us to make a presentation on the spiritual and religious themes in Star Trek, even though creator Gene Roddenberry rejected religion and described himself as a humanist. 

Canadian William Shatner was Captain James Kirk of the Starship Enterprise but it was Leonard Nimoy as the Vulcan First Officer, Spock,who gave us the iconic phrase "live long and prosper", a salute usually accompanied by the split fingered hand gesture. 

Did you know that Spock was Jewish...sort of? According to a recent Collider piece:

Besides being the main speaker and keeper of those words, Nimoy applied his own sense of alienation to the role through his performance and by improvising the Vulcan salute. He based the sign on the Jewish Priestly Blessing, a benediction performed by the Kohanim upon their congregation. "[Director Joe Pevney] had me approach T'Pau and I felt a greeting gesture was called for," Nimoy reflected in a 2012 guest blog post for Star Trek.com. "So I suggested it to Joe, who accepted it immediately."

After Nimoy's parents, both Ukranian Jews, immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, the household spoke fluent Yiddish and actively attended Orthodox synagogues. In the same blog post, Nimoy shared how strongly the blessing ceremony affected him once he witnessed it as a child:

"I still have a vivid memory of the first time I saw the use of the split-fingered hands being extended to the congregation in blessing. [...] I was entranced. I learned to do it simply because it seemed so magical. It was probably 25 years later that I introduced that gesture as a Vulcan greeting in Star Trek and it has resonated with fans around the world ever since. It gives me great pleasure since it is, after all, a blessing."

So, live long, prosper, and mazel tov!