Jewish Themes in Star Trek [Paperback]

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2010

Rabbi Gershom takes you where no rabbi has gone before! You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this well-researched and reader-friendly journey into Jewish themes, actors, writers, in-jokes and subtexts in the Star Trek Universe. Inspired by a class he taught at the Minneapolis Talmud Torah, the book explores such things as: The Jewish origin of the Vulcan salute; How Vulcan culture is based on rabbinical Judaism; "Who is a Jew" among Trek characters in episodes, movies and the novels; How Talmudic logic helped expand the Star Trek universe; Why Ferengi values are NOT Jewish values -- and much more!

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: lulu.com (March 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0557048001
• ISBN-13: 978-0557048007
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,301,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rabbi Yonassan Gershom is a Hasidic storyteller, teacher and writer. He was born in Berkeley, California in 1947, and grew up in the Philadelphia area. He graduated from Mankato State University (MN) in 1975, and was ordained by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (formerly the B'nai Or Rebbe) in 1986. He currently identifies as a Breslov Hasid.

His current writing project is "Nortes from a Jewish Naturalist: Torah Insights from the Great North Woods," an exploration of nature from a Jewish perspective, based on his own observations and experiences living in rural Minnesota.

Rabbi Gershom is best known for his ground-breaking work, "Beyond the Ashes: Cases of Reincarnation from the Holocaust" (A.R.E. Press 1992), which has become a classic in the past-life regression field, and "Jewish Tales of Reincarnation" (Jason Aronson 2000), a study of past-life stories in classical Jewish texts and folklore. His reincarnation books and essays have been translated into at least seven languages. He is currently retired from reincarnation work and has moved on to other projects, athough he does do occasional consultations.

His classic kabbalah course, "49 Gates of Light," first published in 1987 as a spiralbound workbook, is now back in print as a full-color, illutrated trade paperback through Lulu.com as of March 2010. (Newly revised and updated.)

In 2008, Rabbi Gershom appeared in the documentary film, "A Sacred Duty: Applying Jewish Values to Heal the World," produced by Lionel Friedberg for Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA). (View it free at asacredduty.com)He himself is an ovo-lacto vegetarian and is on the advisory board of JVNA.

Rabbi Gershom lives with his wife, Caryl (pronounced "Carol") and a Noah's Ark of animals on a small hobby farm in rural Minnesota. His latest books are "Jewish Themes in Star Trek" (Lulu Press 2009) and "Eight Candles of Consciousness: Essays on Jewish Nonviolence" (Lulu Press 2009.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I wanted to love this book....., May 18, 2009

By 

BJ "BJ" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jewish Themes in Star Trek (Paperback)

.....as it combines two of my favorite things.

The content alone would get 4 or maybe even 4.5 stars. The discussion of the parallels between Jewish thought and the Star Trek view of the universe really was fascinating ;-)

Unfortunately, I found the lack of an editor's touch very frustrating. Chekov's name spelled multiple ways in different places, the Oklahoma City bomber called Anthony McVeigh (his name was Timothy McVeigh, which a quick visit to Google would have corrected), and calling Worf's adoptive parents his stepparents really got in the way of enjoying the fairly interesting content. Picky - maybe. But missing on details like that makes it hard for me to trust the content -- did the author miss on other, more important details where I didn't know enough to catch it?

So, while the theme/content was covered reasonably well, I can only give the overall book 2.5 (rounded to 3; to be generous and because I really did like the topic discussion) stars.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but...., November 15, 2009

By 

Stuart M. Mulne "SMM Associates" (Youngstown, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Jewish Themes in Star Trek (Paperback)

I ordered this book for an "Adult Education" class at the Synagogue. Unfortunately, the class time and days were changed to the point that I couldn't attend. Seemed like a good idea at the time, so I read it anyway....

(One of our recent Rabbi's was a bit of a Trekkie. The current Rabbi hasn't admitted anything to me, but he has a background that's about as eclectic as Rabbi Gershom's, so....)

Perhaps because I'm Jewish, and fairly Secular at that, I don't see things in Jewish terms the way Rabbi Gershom seems to sometimes, but enjoyed the references anyway. I'd put "plausible" rather than "definite" on a couple of things....

Well written, I think, and while not exactly a page-turner, pretty good. Some things in there that I'd not noticed before. I'm old enough to have watched the Original Series "live", and I think, bless my VCR, I've seen every episode of every version (and probably most of the animated series) at least once. STTNG is kind of sterile, and Voyager a little too off the wall at times. My preference is "Enterprise", although I think I'm alone....

I'd always thought that I understood Saavik's comments to Spock, btw, but never realized why....

My only complaint is that Rabbi Gershom seems to presume we're familiar with the various secondary works - fanzines, novels, etc. I've read a couple and didn't like them. The only book I was familiar with in this sense was the original "Making" for the original series. I might have a copy here, but a recent move and some basement flooding at the prior residence may have killed that.

Just IMHO, but if you're Jewish and a serious Trekkie, a must read. Otherwise, just fun....

4.0 out of 5 stars Room at the Inn for all, November 6, 2011

By 

Infin-8 Diversity - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Jewish Themes in Star Trek (Paperback)

Adds to the infinite diversity of views on why the Star Trek phenomena is greater than the sum of its fans.