Saturday, December 28, 2019

Happy Hanukkah?

I recall two references to Christianity in the original series Star Trek (Uhura's "Son" worshippers vs "sun" worshippers, and Kirk's “Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.”)  In my favorite episode, Balance of Terror, a (nondenominational) chapel was shown on Enterprise.

While I don't recall any reference to Judaism in the show, I have to believe there were Jews on the Enterprise.  After all, Jews have survived as a people for thousands of years, so they'll certainly be around a few hundred years from now!  And mathematically speaking you'd think there would be at least a couple in a crew of over 400.

So, would a Jewish crewman have one of these?
Yes, I think so.

2 comments:

  1. Ann in L.A.12:53 PM

    There's also Leonard Nemoy's choice of hand-sign for Vulcans, which is based on an ancient Jewish blessing.

    From Wikipedia:

    >> In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (ש), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the gesture. The letter Shin here stands for El Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)", as well as for Shekinah and Shalom. Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue, where he saw the blessing performed and was impressed by it.<<

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  2. I had forgotten about Nimoy's nod to Judaism.

    I wonder if Nimoy had one of these menorahs!

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