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Shekhina | 
 enlarge | Authors: Leonard Nimoy, Donald Kuspit
Publisher: Umbrage Editions
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy Used: $13.40
You Save: $26.55 (66%)
New (20) Used (18) Collectible (1) from $13.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 223209
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 10.3 x 0.7
ISBN: 1884167160
Dewey Decimal Number: 779.24092
EAN: 9781884167164
ASIN: 1884167160
Publication Date: August 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Dust jacket is pretty bent up on the front & back-Pages are perfect. While most of the books offered by Bayfront Books are better than simply "Good," some of these books may show some damage to their dust jackets (where applicable), may have spines showing signs of wear, and may include limited notations and highlighting.
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Product Description
First-ever monograph by Leonard Nimoy revealing his intrigue with scriptural mythology and ancient spirituality.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Very aesthetic pictures September 16, 2007
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Actually I don't like pictures of naked women, because there are already too many of them, everywhere. But these pictures are different. They are very aestethically and well made. To share the topics Judaism godhood and women is really intersting, because I have never seen anyone - especially no man - who puts together believe and women, anyway if the women are naked or not. I think it is very couragenously of Leonard Nimoy to do it. I always knew he is a very emancipated man, he always was.
I liked most the pictures where I could see the relations to Judaism directly. The pictures are really impressive. I am not a Jew, but very interested in that religion and Leonard Nimoy (himself a trusted Jew) shows me one more time that Jews have something special and they (many of them I think) know what life can be when one uses its qualities. Actually anyone should know, it shouldn't something to do with believe or religion...
Very well done book and an interesting facet of a man who many only know as green blooded and with pointed ears, what is much too little, if one wants to describe Leonard Nimoy.
Prudes make me mad August 24, 2006
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
I shouldn't be dumbfounded by some of the prudish, narrow-minded responses this book has evoked. And yet I am.
As a deeply religious and spiritual person, as a feminist, and also a photographer of classical nudes not unlike those presented in this book, I commend Nimoy's work.
1. From an artistic perspective the technique, composition, and visual impact is intense and yet quiet.
2. From a feminist perspective, this work does NOT objectify women, but rather celebrates them. Mr. Nimoy has never been one to objectify women's bodies, as he made so clear with his Full Body Project in which he sympathetically photographed very, very rotund women. His very reference to Shekhina, the female aspect of the Hebrew God Yahweh (if you don't know anything about her, please look her up) shows his deep respect for women. Yes, these women are naked, but they are clothed in their own strength. They are not presented as objects of lust, but rather as beings connected to the spiritual realm. The nudity just serves to add to the poignancy, intimacy, and sincerity of the work.
3. Spiritually, there is nothing remoting insulting about this work. Nudity is not a filthy thing, just as sex is not (although this work is clearly not even remotely about sex.) Yahweh put Adam and Eve into the garden stark naked, because this was His idea of perfection, innocence, and beauty. It wasn't until sin came into play that clothes entered the scene -- Adam and Eve came up with the idea of clothing, and Yahweh just went along with it. Clothing is a social construct created by humans in reaction to their own shame. Worshipping before God nude shows our vulnerability, shows that we hold no barriers between ourselves and the Divine, and that we come to Him as He created us.
Simultaneously, this work challenges conservative Jewish, Christian, and Muslim perspectives of women that suggest they are the originators of sin and evil, and therefore do not have the same right or ability to connect with God as men (and as such are not allowed to be religious leaders.) He particularly highlights women's ability to create and harbor life within themselves, using this as an example of their unique form of spirituality. Mr. Nimoy's women approach God without the shame in relation to their womanhood and their supposed original sin, concepts the religious right tries to pound into them. Their femininity and pride therein is emphasized by their nakedness.
On all counts, a provocative, artistic, rich, reverent, inspiring work.
Beautiful and inspiring. July 22, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Contrary to some of the amusingly horrified reviews here, every single page of Shekhina is not plastered with breasts or splayed genitals. Of course there is nudity- full nudity on a couple of pages- but it is very tastefully done (if you're looking for pictures of naked women in an erotic context, look elsewhere). Nimoy's photography depicts these women reverently and they very much bring across the spirituality he intended.
 Good Photographs of Nudes from Leonard Nimoy August 20, 2004
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Leonard Nimoy shows that he is as fine a photographer as he is an actor and film director in "Shekhina", his first monograph of photographs. These are beautiful, sensual photographs of Jewish women and are in themselves, an intriguing photographic exploration into Jewish femininity. And yet Nimoy's work doesn't quite rise up to Edward Weston's or Robert Mapplethorpe's in its ability to inspire or to infuriate the viewer. To his credit, Nimoy demonstrates his technical acumen in lighting and composition. However, I wish his work was visually more interesting.
 The Shekhina is not a goddess! February 19, 2004
37 out of 102 found this review helpful
Fans of avant-garde photography and soft porn will no doubt love this book, but I found it offensive. No religious Jew, man or woman, would pray in a tallis and tefillin while so scantily clad.
These may be the fantasies of an old man going through his second puberty, but they are not the kinds of images that I would want in my kosher home. There are ways to portray the beauty of Jewish women without the goyishkeit of stripping their clothes off. The book is doubly disappointing because some of Nimoy's past projects have included narrating NPR concerts of High Holy Days music and PBS's excellent video on Hasidic Judaism ("A Life Apart: Hasidim in America"), portraying a Holocaust survivor as well as Tevye, plus many other performances that gave him a patina of authenticity where Judaism is concerned. Even in Star Trek, he brought his Jewishness along in creating the "Vulcan salute" and much of Vulcan culture in general. Because of this background, his fans will now be misled into thinking that this book portrays something authentically Jewish. It does not! I am deeply disappointed that Mr. Nimoy fell for the neo-pagan myth of the Shekhinah as a personified "goddess." Ever since Raphael Patai published that awful book called "The Hebrew Goddess" back in the 70s, which claimed that the Caananite idols were once part of Judaism, this canard has continues to circulate in the gentile world. In real Judaism, the Shekhinah is not a goddess, it is the indwelling presence of God. It's the "spirit of holiness within" all things in God's creation -- more analagous to the "Holy Spirit" than to a goddess. It is a feminine ASPECT of God, yes. But to personify it with photos of women is a form of idolatry that has no place in Judaism. The popular misconception of Shekhinah as a woman comes from the fact that the word is GRAMMATICALLY feminine in Hebrew. So are the words for "soul," "Torah," "prayer" and a lot of other things, because EVERY noun in Hebrew is either masculine or feminine, the same as Spanish or French. There is no neuter pronoun in Hebrew. But, when Hebrew is translated into English, the he/she pronouns become "it" instead. Granted, this does eliminate much of the male-female imagery in the Torah. But Nimoy's book is not the way to reclaim the feminine symbolism. Had he called it something else and left out the Jewish references, it might have passed as an artistic study of the female form (he is a good photographer.) As it is, the book is a neo-pagan travesty. What a sad exit for the great actor and writer who gave us the complex (and very modest) character of Mr. Spock.
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