Vulcan salute

The Vulcan salute is a hand gesture consisting of a raised hand, palm forward with the fingers parted between the middle and ring finger, and the thumb extended. The salute first appeared on in the second season opening episode, "Amok Time". It was devised by Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played the half-Vulcan Mr. Spock. The gesture is famously difficult for most people to do without practice, and actors on the original show reportedly often had to position their fingers off-screen with the other hand, before raising their hand into frame. This stems from the fact that the ring finger lacks a separate muscle apart from the pinkie finger. It is also said that this gesture is easier to perform with the non-dominant hand (i.e. if one is right-handed, it is easier to do left-handed) Fact|date=August 2007. This is parodied somewhat the motion picture when Zefram Cochrane, upon meeting a Vulcan for the first time in human history, is unable to return the Vulcan salute gesture and instead shakes the Vulcan's hand.

(ש), which has three upward strokes similar to the position of the thumb and fingers in the salute. The letter Shin here stands for Shaddai, meaning "Almighty (God)", and has a special significance in Judaism.Nimoy wrote that when he was a child, his grandfather took him to an Orthodox synagogue. There he saw the blessing performed, and was very impressed by it.

The accompanying spoken blessing, Live long and prosper ("Dup dor a'az Mubster" in Vulcan language as spoken in "") also appeared for the first time in "Amok Time", scripted by Theodore Sturgeon [http://www.sfsite.com/gary/stur01.htm] . The less-known preceding salutation is "Peace and long life." This format is similar to common Middle Eastern greetings ("Shalom aleichem" in Hebrew and "Salaam alaykum" in Arabic), meaning "peace be upon you", and its reply, "upon you be peace".

Use outside of Star Trek

* In the 1978 SF sitcom "Mork & Mindy", the Vulcan salute was spoofed by the main character Mork (Robin Williams), whose greeting was to open and close his fingers in rapid succession while saying "Na-nu na-nu," which became a popular catchphrase.
*The gesture features in Weird Al Yankovic's "White and Nerdy" music video.
*It appears in an episode of "The Colbert Report": in the segment "The Wørd", after Stephen Colbert drapes a gold necklace saying "Word", in reference to a slang word for agreement, he makes the gesture with both hands, as if he were flashing a gang sign.
*Buzz Lightyear gives the salute to Woody in the 1995 computer animated film "Toy Story" accompanied by "Farewell." He does it again in "Toy Story 2", when saying goodbye to the other Buzz.
*The salute appears in the 2004 movie "The Terminal", as an acceptance of a marriage proposal.
*It is a feature of Star Trak Entertainment, a hip hop record label founded by Chad Hugo and Pharrell.
*The gesture is shown to be a greeting frequently used by Hiro Nakamura, a character on the NBC science fiction drama "Heroes". Note that in the story, Hiro's father is played by George Takei.
*It also appears in the episode "Fear Her" of the British sci-fi show "Doctor Who".
*George Takei gave the salute on the NBC's improvisational comedy show "Thank God You're Here" at the end of one of his sketches, entitled "AM Cooking Show."
*On one of animated Leonard Nimoy's appearances on "The Simpsons", Mayor Quimby salutes Nimoy with the Vulcan salute but mistakenly accompanying it with "May the Force be with you", which is from the wrong franchise ("Star Wars").
*The Devil Major Arcana of the Rider Waite Tarot deck makes a similar gesture.
*On the "Futurama" episode "Space Pilot 3000", Fry approaches Nimoy's disembodied head in a jar, and asks him to do the "Thing" (Giving Nimoy the salute). Nimoy's head chuckles and responds, "I don't do that anymore". Additionally, in another episode, Jurassic Bark Fry gives the Vulcan Salute to his dog Seymour as he leaves, and delivers the accompanying line "Live long and prosper."
*The gesture is currently being used by ECW Smackdown wrestler Big Daddy V, although he uses it in reference to his name, rather than Star Trek.
*In the movie, "", when Jimmy greets the Yolkians in the recording, he does the vulcan salute.
*In the movie, "Ice Age", the human baby being cared for by the animals gives the vulcan salute when he sees an alien spaceship frozen in the ice cave.
*In the movie Back to the Future, Marty does the salute to George, claiming to be an alien from the planet Vulcan named Darth Vader.
*In the music video for "Summer Hair = Forever Young", by The Academy Is..., at 1:13 singer William Beckett gives the salute.
*In the movie "The Time Machine (2002)", the virtual artificially intelligent librarian Vox-114 made a Vulcan salute when Alexander Hartdegen leaves him.

External links

* [http://www.pinenet.com/~rooster/v-salute.html The Jewish Origin of the Vulcan Salute] -- a very complete page by Rabbi Yonassan Gershom, with photos and diagrams of how the Salute forms the Hebrew letter Shin, the use of the Blessing Hands gesture on Jewish gravestones and jewelry, etc.