Mr. Spock's Feminine Judaism

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Associated Press, May 11, 2004, with the headline, “Mr. Spock’s Feminine Judaism [Dateline: North Hampton, MA]—The women appear aglow, black and white images bathed in light. Some are nude; others are loosely covered with translucent robes or Jewish prayer shawls. They are Leonard Nimoy’s embodiment of ‘Shekinah,’ the feminine presence of God.

“Best known as Mr. Spock in Star Trek, Nimoy left the screen to pursue other interests, most notably photography. In 2002, he published Shekinah, a book of about 40 photographs that explore his interest in the feminine aspects of Jewish divinity.

“ ‘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.’

“With his collection of photos, Nimoy probes his understanding of ‘Shekinah’ using professional models, actresses, and dancers, not all of whom are Jewish, as well as his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy. He sought subjects who ‘possessed an inner life.’

“ ‘I needed models who could bring the sense of spirit to life,’ he said. ‘They needed to bring vitality.’

“His use of nude and partly clad female models donning a tallit or tefilin, Jewish prayer accessories traditionally worn by men, has ignited controversy in some parts of the Jewish community.

“But his photos have been well received at many reform synagogues and in art galleries and museums around the country.”

Tom: Dave, in finding this article, it reminded me of a word that just drove me crazy when I was working on the book Showtime for the Sheep?: The Church and the Passion of the Christ. Among Christians, who I thought should know better—I still think should know better—the term came up: “artistic license.” Now, who should complain? I’m using that phrase a little bit sarcastically, but who should complain about Leonard Nimoy? About the “shekinah” glory of God? He’s just applying a little artistic license, so what could be wrong with that?

Dave: Yeah, Tom, I kind of suspect he just likes nude females, and isn’t that—we call that pornography. So now we’ve got pornography but it’s covered up with some religious symbolism.

Tom: Well, even the religious prayer cloth—prayer shawl.

Dave: So, he dares to take a word from the Bible: “Shekinah. Shekinah glory.” This is the Shekinah glory of God.” And the Scripture very clearly says God is not a man. He has no body. He’s not male or female. God is a Spirit, Jesus said—He told the woman at the well in John 4. This is a glory that had no image to it. You’re not allowed to have an image. I mean, that is basic to Jewish understanding from the Old Testament.

The very first commandment is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” okay? You don’t make an image—no likeness of creatures, whether male or female—and that is not allowed. So he is violating the most basic understanding of God and of the Scripture, and you talk about artistic license. Yeah, he’s taking it, and, Tom, it shows that there’s no fear of God—no regard for what God says—but we’re going to make up our own God. This is what he’s doing. He’s making up his own God. This is idolatry, just as surely as you make it out of wood or clay or stone, he’s making up his own God.

Tom: Dave, it’s interesting, in Hollywood, many stars—some Jewish, some not Jewish—they’re doing the same: Kabbalah, for example. Jewish mysticism, Jewish magic, what is it—numerology, in a sense. It seems whatever you come up with, if it has a kind of a spiritual connotation, if it’s rooted in something ancient, and so on, well, then it’s okay; it’s all good.

Dave: Well, Tom, what we have is—however you look at it—this is man forming his own god out of his imagination. It’s idolatry. It’s paganism. It’s nonsense. Who says that —he’s coming up with some representation of the Shekinah glory—who says that this has anything to do with the God who created this universe? It’s irrational. And it’s simply illustrative of the rebellion in the human heart. Man is not going to obey God. God has to reveal Himself to us. He’s beyond us. 

We’ve talked about it in the past—the university professor who wants to make us the cousins of an octopus or descended from chimpanzee, or whatever it may be, is just as bad. It’s not the transcendent Creator of the universe who creates everything out of nothing, but now it’s some evolutionary force. “Isn’t that amazing? Oh, this is the power behind the universe. This is what brought us into existence.”

It is a rebellion, a rejection, a denial, of the Creator who put His laws in every human conscience, and He’s made it very clear in His universe all around us that He is the only true God. And now they’ve trashed Him.

Tom: Dave, I find it fascinating that all of this has to do with spirituality—with religion. We have an appetite—human beings have an appetite for religion. The Antichrist—he wants worship. It’s all about that, isn’t it?

Dave: Indeed it is. Man is an incurably religious being.

Tom: But not interested in truth.

Dave: Well, Tom, if there is a God, who is going to tell you who He is—He’s going to tell you what to do, then that requires submission on your part. But if you can make up your own God, and you could just mold him any way you want, you could come up with you own imagination—this is what Genesis:6:5And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
See All... says: “God looked down on this earth, and he saw that the imagination of man’s heart was only evil continually.” And that was why He brought the flood. And He’s going to bring judgment upon this earth because of this very sort of thing.