“… By the time of his bar mitzvah, Lenny could make the gesture easily with either hand. His fingers looked like the letter shin, which, he’d learned in Hebrew school, was the first letter of the word shalom, or “peace,”
and Shaddal, one of the names for God.”
I’m following up
last week’s Kirkus Q&A with author
Richard Michelson and illustrator
Edel Rodriguez with a bit of Edel’s art from
Fascinating: The Life of Leonard Nimoy, on shelves this month from Knopf.
Enjoy!
“Lenny peeked. He was fascinated by what he saw. The men pulled their prayer shawls over their heads but their chants only got louder. As they blessed the congregation, they raised both arms in the air and held out their hands as if they were shooting a two-handed jump shot. What were they doing with their fingers? Fascinating.”
“At home, Bubbe made him feel better. She sang him a Yiddish song about a boy who wanted to turn into a bird and explore the planet.”
“… Then one day in 1965, he got a call from Gene Roddenberry, a producer who was writing a new science-fiction television show called Star Trek. He wanted Leonard to play the part of an alien science officer named Spock. …”
(Click to enlarge spread)
“… ‘And how do Vulcans greet each other?’ he was asked. Leonard thought for a while, and then he remembered his time in the temple when he was eight years old. He held up his hand in the ancient Herbraic gesture. And he blessed the actors he worked with, and he blessed the audience, and he blessed everyone all over the universe. …”
(Click to enlarge spread)
* * * * * * *
FASCINATING: THE LIFE OF LEONARD NIMOY. Text copyright © 2016 by Richard Michelson. Illustrations copyright © 2016 by Edel Rodriguez. Published by Alfred A. Knopf, New York. Illustrations reproduced by permission of Richard Michelson.
September 22nd, 2016 by jules
And he blessed the actors he worked with, and he blessed the audience, and he blessed everyone all over the universe. …
*big fat tears*