The Vulcan salute first appeared in 1967 on the Star Trek second season opening episode, "Amok Time". 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)[citation needed]. This is parodied somewhat in the motion picture Star Trek: First Contact 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.

In his autobiography I Am Not Spock, Nimoy wrote that he based it on the Priestly Blessing performed by Jewish Kohanim with both hands, thumb to thumb in this same position, representing the Hebrew letter Shin (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" (Dif-tor heh smusma in Vulcan language as spoken in Star Trek: The Motion Picture) also appeared for the first time in "Amok Time", scripted by Theodore Sturgeon [1]. 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".