Star Trek at 50: Spock, Jews, and autism

Today is the 50th anniversary of the airing of the first episode of Star Trek. Lake every other Trekkie in the planet (and maybe beyond), I find myself looking back at how the show affected me during those first years.

As I wrote in my article "Spock and Jews in the 1960s" (included in Kevin Neece's book Spockology), there weren't many positive Jewish role models on TV back then:

"This was back when most Jewish actors and writers changed their names to sound more “American.”  The hero was always a Stoic White Man of the Aryan Persuasion who never, ever waved his hands around or spoke with a Yiddish accent like the people on my block.  Even biblical characters were played as if they grew up in the American Bible Belt.  Everybody celebrated Christmas on programs like “Leave it to Beaver,” but there was no acknowledgement of Hanukkah, except maybe to morph it into a “Jewish Christmas,” complete with a bogus “Hanukkah bush.” If Jews were included in the script at all, they were usually played as buffoons."  

Of course Spock wasn't Jewish, but Leonard Nimoy was.  And he was no buffoon.

It is well documented that Nimoy drew upon his Jewish background to develop the character.  We all know about the Vulcan Salute being derived from a Jewish blessing gesture, but there are other influences also. His love of knowledge and pride in his Vulcan culture were important to me at a time when intellectuals were disparaged as "eggheads" (forerunner of "nerds") and being Jewish was something we often hid in order to "pass" in a world hostile to us. I credit Spock with giving me a model for how to live in an "alien" world without losing my identity as a Jew.

It was not until my mid-50s, when I was diagnosed with ADHD and later autism, that I found another reason I relate to Spock.  He does indeed have a lot of seemingly autistic traits, even though Roddenberry thought of them as "logic."  Then again, many autistics are good at math and logic. And like Spock, we often misread human emotions.

All of this, of course, is my own personal transference.  Others see Spock in different ways. Which is fine. Star Trek has always been a mirror in which we see ourselves reflected. That is a big part of its longevity. May it continue to do so for many years to come.

Live long and prosper!

The Parable of the Spaceship

I just had another conversation with a person who tried to convince me that Orthodox Judaism is "outdated" and we should get rid of those "antiquated" rules and traditions.  So I decided this would be a good time to post my "Parable of the Spaceship" that I began telling several years ago: 

A spaceship filled with colonists takes off from Earth to settle on a planet circling a distant star.  The people on board do not yet have “warp drive” like on Star Trek, so this journey is going to take several centuries.  Generations will be born, live, and die aboard the ship, knowing nothing else but its interior as their entire world.

On board the spaceship are all the things the colonists will need to survive when they get to their destination; seeds for planting; frozen embryos of animals to grow upon arrival, and the laboratory equipment to do it; shelters to erect; machines for mining and manufacturing; instructions stored in the computer for how to farm, how to build, etc.  In short, all that is necessary to make a home on their new world is right there on board their ship.  And along with these things are very strict rules about how to care for everything during the long journey.

But as the generations go by, the practical knowledge about what these things are for begins to get lost.  The people have the videos, the photos, the diagrams and instructions – but now it all seems like a fairy tale.  And it also seems like a big bother to go through all those time-consuming, detailed protocols necessary to keep these things in good condition.  The new generations begin to wonder why they are wasting time and valuable space.  Insects?  Birds?  Trees?  What are they?  And why would we need them anyway, they argue.  We have everything we need already, including replicators to manufacture food and other goods.   So let’s just throw this useless junk out the airlock, delete unused files from the computer, and free up more room for us in the here and now.

Upon arriving at their destination, the colonists soon discover that they are missing vital instructions and materials for building their community – the very stuff they had jettisoned along the way.  How then can they survive outside the ship?  Some people don’t even want to leave the ship for the planet below.  All their lives they have lived inside familiar steel walls.  Now the wide-open sky, fresh air, and endless horizons are just too big and frightening.   So they remain inside.

Like the space colonists, we Jews are also on a centuries long, intergenerational journey.  Our operation manual is the Torah.  Every mitzvah has a purpose in the end – if we are far-sighted enough not to throw it overboard because it does not seem to have any value in the here and now.

And that, my dear fellow Jews, is exactly what many of us have done with the Torah’s teachings.   Living for generations within the confines of urban ghettos – the “ships” of our centuries-long history – we have sometimes thrown away things that are now very important for our well-being.  

Consider, for example, the fact that -- get this! -- psychologists and others are now recommending that we should "unplug" one day a week, to re-connect with each other as face-to-face families and friends.  That's something that religious Jews do every Sabbath!  (In fact, When Dr. Richard Besser on Good Morning America suggested this as a New Year's resolution in 2015, here's what I tweeted:  "Congratulations!  you just rediscovered the Jewish Sabbath!"  And he thanked me back.)

 The Sages of Pirkei Avot spoke wisely: We should be careful of every mitzvah, major or minor, even those that we do not understand or see as relevant to our own lives.

Was Hanukkah celebrated aboard the Enterprise?

Is there any reference to Hanukkah in Star Trek?  Christmas is mentioned a couple times ("Dagger of the Mind" in TOS and the movie Generations), but was Hanukkah ever celebrated aboard the Enterprise?

For years there was a persistent rumor that Hanukkah was mentioned on The Next Generation series.  I heard it myself back in the 1990s.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be an urban legend -- although one that is based on an understandable mis-hearing of the script.  There is a reference to a "Festival of Lights," but it wasn't Hanukkah.  In my book Jewish Themes in Star Trek, I wrote:

Candles lit for the Jewish
Festival of Lights

"On several occasions, while writing this book, I was told that a Hanukkah party had indeed been mentioned in The Next Generation series.  Unfortunately, the story turned out to be nothing more
than another urban legend.  Its source was apparently the same 1991 Hadassah magazine article [see below] that I mentioned in Chapter 1, which stated: 'In a recent show, the ship's log recorded the celebration of -- among other esoteric and arcane observances, including a sort of Klingon bar mitzvah -- Hanukkah.'

Candles lit for the Hindu
Festival of Lights

"The 'recent episode' referenced in Teitelbaum's article was 'Data's Day' (TNG), which aired that same year.  But the festival recorded by Data in the ship's log was not Hanukkah.  It was Divali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, which celebrates the god Rama's return to his kingdom. Teitelbaum had apparently heard the phrase 'Festival of Lights' (another name for Hanukkah), but missed the Hindu reference.  Still, if Divali is celebrated aboard the Enterprise-D, then it's reasonable to assume that Hanukkah is, too." (Jewish Themes in Star Trek, p. 30)

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Hadassah is a major Jewish women's magazine, read by Jews of all denominations or lack thereof.  Unfortunately, their online archives do not go back to 1991, but if you have access to old print copies, the article was called "Is Star Trek Jewish?" by Sheldon Teitelbaum, and appeared in the December 1991 issue.   At that time, the episode in question was not yet released on VHS or DVD, so it's easy to understand how this error happened.  Teitelbaum mis-heard the log and had no easy way to double check it.  Apparently so many people then read his article that the "fact" of a Hanukkah celebration aboard the Enterprise entered the popular culture.  A generation later, it's still circulating.

I must admit that I was disappointed to find out there is no such reference -- at least not in canonical Trek.  (Alan Dean Foster's novelization of "The Ambergris Element" features the animated character  M'ress playing dreidel with her Jewish roomate at Starfleet Academy, but this scene was not in the actual episode.)  Still, if Scotty can wear a kilt and Worf can wear a Klingon sash, then why can't a Jew wear a yarmulke and light a menorah?  For that matter, why couldn't Jews get together on the holodeck for a Hanukkah celebration?

That would raise an interesting question:  Can you fulfill the mitzvah with holographic candles?  Probably not.  But we have seen Spock light real candles in his quarters, so that should not be a problem.  As for availability of candles in space, they could be replicated.

In fact, the lights would not have to be candles at all.  Nor must the menorah be the usual semi-circular shape.  Originally, rows of oil lamps were used, and some people today still use olive oil.  You can use anything to light the menorah, as long as it uses real fire (not electric bulbs, although the can be used as decorations to proclaim the miracle.)  The lights must burn the requisite amount of time (minimum of half an hour after sunset) and must burn out on their own (not blown out or otherwise extinguished) before the next night.

Which brings up another problem.  When is sunset on a spaceship?  My guess would be for the crew to do what Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon did for calculating the Sabbath aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia:  use Jerusalem time!  Just sychronize a chronometer with Israel back on Earth.

A decorative Star Trek Menorah with LED 
lights mounted on Trek Pez dispensers!  
(Courtesy of "The Evil Mad Scientist" website)