William Shatner was unable to attend his friend Leonard Nimoy’s funeral, held early Sunday morning in LA, because he was honoring a previous commitment at a Red Cross charity event on Saturday night in Florida. In the comments on our coverage of that story yesterday, many of you pointed out that both Nimoy and Shatner are Jewish, and that the dead must be buried as quickly as possible, often in under a day’s time, under the Jewish religion. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but from my brief Wikipedia research, funeral ceremonies are thus not as central to Jewish mourning as they are to Christians, as their dead are not embalmed and are buried quickly. Jewish mourners also sit Shiva where they go into mourning for seven days, at which point they receive visitors.

I mention all that because Shatner received a lot of flack from the press, and on Twitter, for missing Nimoy’s funeral by just a few hours. Shatner is 83 years old and he had a very valid reason for not being able to attend his friend’s funeral, and even if he didn’t, it’s not our business. People mourn in their own way. What’s more is that we may be judging Shatner’s behavior through a Christian lens that just doesn’t apply. In a new interview with Insider Edition, Shatner further explained his decision, which I don’t think was necessary at all but he’s being asked and he obliged. The people who are trolling him on Twitter and in the media are never going to understand anyway.

My understanding is mourn the dead but celebrate life. I chose to celebrate life by going to the Red Cross gathering in Palm Beach, raised a lot of money for the Red Cross. In that ceremony, in that time, I asked over a thousand people to remember Leonard Nimoy and Maury Hurley, another wonderful writer and another dear friend of mine who died this week. And to take a moment to remember them, but also remember them by doing good deeds. And those good deeds will be remembered long after any other kind of memorial.

[From Inside Edition, received via email]

Not only that, Shatner spent a lot of time on Twitter answering fan questions about Nimoy and remembering his dear friend. Plus he lost another friend this week! That’s so sad. My heart goes out to him, and to Nimoy’s family. I lost my dear grandma Gert to COPD, like Nimoy she contracted it decades after she quit smoking.

On a lighter note, here is one of Shatner’s recent tweets, a defaced Canadian five dollar note altered to look like Spock. It’s not illegal to deface bill notes in Canada. (This is their seventh Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier.) I get the impression there are about to be a lot more of these in circulation.

“@CBCToronto: ‘Spocking’ Laurier on $5 not illegal, says Bank of Canada http://t.co/nMtkt8dxPt #cbcto #LLAP pic.twitter.com/LuOKswno9I” Go forth

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) March 3, 2015

photo credit: WENN.com and FameFlynet