How Jewish are the Vulcans?

For some reason, I was wandering around the web researching Vulcan kolinahr today and ran across this tidbit that was unfamiliar to me. The Vulcan "live long and prosper" hand salute has Jewish roots.

Leonard Nimoy has long been active in the Jewish community, and he can speak and read Yiddish. In 1997, he narrated the documentary A Life Apart: Hasidism in America, about the various sects of Hasidic Orthodox Jews. In October 2002, Nimoy published The Shekhina Project, a photographic study exploring the feminine aspect of God's presence, inspired by Kabbalah. Reactions have varied from enthusiastic support to open condemnation. Nimoy claims that objections to Shekhina do not bother or surprise him, but he smarts at the stridency of the Orthodox protests, and is "saddened at the attempt to control thought."

At any rate, I think I had assumed that the famous Vulcan salute demonstrated in the photograph, was a nod to the initial letter of the name of Spock's home planet and also a nod to the peace sign being flashed everywhere at the time of the original Star Trek series.

However,  it seems that Nimoy created the sign himself from his childhood memories of the way kohanim (Jewish priests) held their hand when giving blessings. During an interview, he translated the Priestly Blessing which accompanied the sign and described it during a public lecture:

May the Lord bless and keep you and may the Lord cause his countenance to shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious unto you and grant you peace. 

 

The accompanying spoken blessing for the Vulcan version, of course: "Live long and prosper."