Thursday, June 29, 2006
Town Emblem Stamps
M. & G. Shamir designed two series of town emblem stamps. The first series was issued between March 24, 1965 and Feb. 8, 1967 and the second series was issued between July 9, 1969 and Oct. 18, 1970. Among the stamps there is the emblem of
Tel Aviv designed by Nahum Gutman with the seven small stars that Theodor Herzl's planned for a seven-hour workday next to a large Magen David
Ashkelon's emblem with 5 Stars of David that stand for the 5 quarters of the town;
Herzeliya emblem with Theodor Herzl's seven Stars of David.
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Theodor Herzl Window Design
Theodor Herzl's tombstone
Theodor Herzl's tombstone Stars of David
Picture is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
There are a lot of Stars of David on Theodore Herzl's tombstone. He was buried in Vienna on the 7 July 1904, next to his father. Die Welt reported that six thousand people came to the funeral from all over the world.
BTW if one sums the digits of the day and month of his funeral [7 July (7th month)] it equals14 which is the sum of the digits in the Hebrew letters of David and the same goes for the sum of the digits of the year 1904. Experts on numerology will probably understand what this means. For me it's just an association that Theodore Herzl was a Shield (of David) that protected the Jewish People from its numerous enemies.
Stars of David surrounded Herzl at least since June 4 1897 when he published the first issue of Die Welt.
WWII Normandy American Cemetery
Star of David Picture from WWII American Cemetery in Normandy is courtesy of "tmmiller' from Flickr.
The graves of soldiers of Jewish faith were marked with the Star of David
The Star of David is a Star
That's how Benjamin Disraeli used it in his historical romance Alroy:
As I gazed upon the Star of David, a sudden halo rose around its rays, and ever and anon a meteor shot from out the silver veil.
When I read Disraeli's book I was looking for a detailed description of David Alroy's Shield, but instead I came up with the above mentioned excerpt..
To this simple interpretation we may add Rashi and Iben Ezra's comment that Bilam's prediction
["There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel" (Numbers 24:17)] is about King David. Maybe this is the source of the questionable translation of the Hebrew words Magen (Shield) David into the English words Star of David.
Krakov Ghetto Gate
Missing Demands
Anyhow, there's quite a difference between the terms "symbol of Judaism" and "Jewish Symbol". Most of the papers I read so far bring a list of artifacts similar to the one found in Capernaum, artifacts that were found on different sites in ancient Israel. These have the shape of the Star of David but they don't have the matching name or meaning. We don't even know WHAT they symbolized.
IMHO a Star of David must meet all the above three demands (shape name and meaning) in order to differentiate it from other cultures' hexagram. Since all the artifacts found in ancient Israel have for certain only the shape of the symbol I don't consider them as more than hexagrams until the missing demands will be completed.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Kosher Seal
There are Israeli Orthodox Jews who don't like the Star of David because it represents the "secular" state, but in this case it seems that the religious and the non-religious meanings of the symbol can live in a harmony on the same box of mushrooms.
Birth Dates
Sunday, June 25, 2006
David Alroy
Cemeteries
Yoram Bar-Gal Maoz Azaryahu from the University of Haifa published a paper about Israeli Cemeteries and Jewish Tradition where they claim that today both Sephardi and Ashkenazy Jews make frequent use of classic Jewish symbols: the Star of David and the menorah.
The Star of David is found by scientific researchers in all kinds of spooky places like cemeteries, archeological sites, ruined synagogues, archives and libraries while non-scientific info collectors like me prefer looking for these stars in the marketplace, where people use it and react to it. Nevertheless Bar-Gal and Azaryahu's paper is full of surprising data and I recommend reading it in its entirety.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Exposure
Of course, he and his team were vilified in the Arab press for brandishing the Star of David, after scoring goals against the Czech Republic. Indeed, some hostile papers even suggested he might be a Mossad agent. Ghana was forced to apologize for any offence caused by waving the flag.
Paintsil hid the flag in his socks and IMHO he opened a new business opportunity for his colleagues: to get money for commercial campaigns; after the next time a soccer player will pull out a banner from his socks the Mondial administrators will surely come up with a new law threatening to punish the whole team.
Over Translation
It is important to understand that in Hebrew "Magen" means both "protection" and "shield". It is a homonym. This is quite an insight. It is so simple that nobody I read seemed to notice it. The meaning of the Magen David is as old as the book of Psalms that was written according to Jewish tradition by King David, who called the lord "my shield". Goodenough's insight adds another theory to the origin of the Star of David. Sometime after the writing of Psalms somebody started spreading the concept of the Shield of David and people liked the new poetic twist so much that they built a legend around it. No wonder that archeologists didn't find any evidence for the physical Shield of David.
Friday, June 23, 2006
Goodenough
-How many years do you work here?
She sighed and answered:
- More the 30 years.
I said I remembered her from the period of my studies 30 years ago.
She smiled.
Later she helped me a lot to find my way in the labyrinth of books.
In the first hour I felt like a stranger but towards the end of the day I started feeling back at home. Eventually I found myself leafing the 13 volumes of E. R. Goodenough Jewish Symbols during the Greco-Roman Period (1953-1968). On the 7th volume as far as I can remember I found on page 198 a short chapter about the Star of David and went down to photocopy it.
The bottom line is that Goodenough suspects that the origin of the Star of David is from the rosette but hasn't got any direct evidence for his hunch. In a way this hunch fits extraordinarily Uri Ofir's theory that the origin of the Star of David is from the ROSE SHAPED candleholder of the Menorah. The difference is of course that Uri Ofir has the needed evidence.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Torah Reading Tables
Torah Reading Tables magen David
Torah Reading Tables magen David picture ©2005 Steve Henry Herman / all rights reserved
I just got an Email from Steve Henry Herman who enjoyed my blog and commented:
I too have a fascination with the Star of David, and have used it in several Torah reading tables I designed and built for sanctuaries in North Carolina. I use the inherent strength of the Star (interlocking triangles) as the central structural key to the tables
Israel is 541
Richard Amiel McGough's supplies his readers with numerological interpretations of the meaning of the Star of David. The one I liked the most was that the sum of the Hebrew letters in the word Israel is 541 and it is the same as the number of dots that appear in a Star of David in which n=10.
6n(n-1) +1
6.10=60
60.9=540
540+1=541
10 =I="yud"
300 =S="shin"
200 =R="reish"
1 =A="aleph"
30 =L="lamed"
541
(E is not counted since in Hebrew the A already covers this base).
According to scientific probability what are the odds that the number of dots in the emblem of Israel will equal the sum of the numerical value of the letters in the word ISRAEL? Amazing!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Magen David Album
Today I started a New Hebrew blog on http://magendavidalbum.blogspot.com/ . I hope this will satisfy all those readers who said that this blog must be also in Hebrew. Still, first stage will be with minimal text since I don't have time right now to translate all the stuff that was accumulated on this blog.
St. Mark Cathedral
There are so many loose ends in the research about the origin of the Star of David. Take for example the stone with an engraved Star of David found in St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. legend has it that the stone was brought to Venice from the Temple in Jerusalem. I reckon there are hundreds of such riddles and solving each one of them might shed more light on this complicated issue.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
hidden synagogue
Titus Gate
This version includes corrections and new materials that do not appear on the printed version
Another ancient symbol of harmony and peace is the Menorah, the seven-branched candelabrum supported by three legs:
In our context, this may tell us that peace, betokened by the Menorah, cannot be established upon one or two legs; all three of them, symbolizing the three main descendants of Abraham and their respective religions, are required to reach a stable peace.
We may infer this from a saying by Solomon, the King of Peace, who said in his wisdom that "a threefold cord is not easily broken."
A mere changing or redesigning of symbols will not do. The actual change requires a relearning which would indeed be the learning of the ways of the God of Jacob, as enjoined by the Prophets. Such a process of reeducation may last for several generations, till we can really "beat the swords into plough shares."
While Christians have at least begun this process through events such as the Vatican Council II and the recent declarations of several Protestant Churches, the Islamic world still needs a harbinger for this new age of grace and truth, righteousness and peace.
May it be God's Will that Mankind comes to understand this without another destructive and devastating war.
Anti Zionist Cartoons
The Fleet of King Solomon
Part of sculpture in bas-relief on a Stela recently unearthed in Campeche, Mexico, and now in the National Museum of Mexico...According to Prof. Alexander von Wuthenau of the University of the Americas in Mexico City (as reported by the Associated Press on March 23, 1971), the ear ornament is an earring which has in its center the "Star of david,"…
Monday, June 19, 2006
Theresienstadt Ghetto Hidden Synagogue
On Flickr I found two photos of Stars of David on the ceiling of the Hidden Synagogue in Theresienstadt ghetto, a town in the former Czechoslovakia, northwest of Prague. The Hidden Synagogue was discovered during the remodeling of a private home in 1997. This story proves in a deep emotional way the special connection that Jews in these horrible conditions made between the shape and the Zionist meaning of their emblem.
Saint Petersburg Bas Relief
I found a well designed website about Saint Petersburg which is intended to promote tourism to this city. There are a few impressive Star of David bas-reliefs without any "historical or architectural analysis", so that it is not clear if they are Jewish, and most chances are that they are non Jewish hexagrams. Anyhow they are so interesting and aesthetic that I decided to let you readers enjoy them.
Readers who can shed some light about this riddle of the Saint Petersburg bas-relief are invited to send me their comments.
Bolshaya Podyacheskaya Ulitsa, 36
Above the entrance: two warriors shaking hands. They look like Roman legionaries. One of them holds a Shield of David.
Zagorodny Prospect, 7
Star of David on gates which lead into the yard of the inn of Konevsky monastery
Liteyny Prospect, 21
Star of David in a circle above the window
Bolshoy Prospect P.S., 77
Star of David in a circle on the roof of the entrance
Goncharnaya Ulitsa, 12
"Cultivated" formof a Star of David in a circle
Ploschad Ostrovskogo, 5
"Cultivated" formof a Star of David in a circle
11 Liniya V.O., 20
Anti Semite Horned satyr-demon on a Star of David
Anichkov Garden (Nevsky Prospect)
the Russian State Emblem, Double-headed eagle, holds in its claws the Star of David in a circle.
Naberezhnaya Kanala Griboedova
Star of David in a circle on the facade of the Church of Christ's Resurrection, also called "the Saviour-on-Blood".
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Blue Box
The Star of David appeared for the first time on the center of the late 1920s blue box version over the words, "The Jewish National Fund". In the early 1930s the classic blue box was re-designed and had the Star of David on both sides.
Star of David Mirror Illusion 2
Star of David hanger for windchimes
Star of David mobile
Star of David Mirror Illusion 1
1. Two mirros triple the view and make 6 candles illusion where in reality there are only two and a Star of David instead of its third in reality.
2. A wood mobile of a Star of David.
3. A hanger for windchimes.
Ofer couldn't explain
in words why is he so drawn to this shape. Sometimes there is no need to explain.
Rare Coins
1882. Star of David above a Torah scroll
Late 19th Century Edmond Rothschild and Montifiore with Star of David
Early 20th century Pin- White Star of David on blue background encircling the word "Zion" in Hebrew in gold
1919- Nordeu's 70th birthday..
1968- Theodore Herzl with 7 stars
World War II Metal pin with Star of David of the Jewish Brigade.
Emblem of the Engineering Unit of the Brigade
1980. Raoul Wallenberg
19th Century Silver: Moses holding the 10 Commandments
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Forgery
The main artifacts in the research of the Star of David are very problematic: who knows if the seal found in Sidon is really Jewish, or if the Star of David in the Capernaum synagogue is not Pagan or Christian. From an article by Uzi Dahari I gained another question mark about this prominence of Archaeological evidence:
How can we be sure that these are not FORGERIES?
Uzi Dahari wrote in his article titled "Archaeological Forgeries" :
While visiting the excavation at Ein-Gedi, conducted by my friend Professor Hirschfeld of the Hebrew University, I saw that he was very excited and told me that a unique talisman with Jewish symbols had just been found.. I looked at it and told him I am sure it is a forgery. There were no Star of David symbols in use as a Jewish symbol in the late Roman and early Byzantine era…
Mildenhall treasure
Mildenhall Hexagram
Picture by
© Sheepdog Rex from Flickr
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Friday, June 16, 2006
Jewish Police
Public domain photo from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
I saw this photo on Wikipedia and went to the source to find similar pictures, which were not Public domain, but supplied more info about this issue:
A Jewish border policeman stands by a guardhouse on a street corner in the Lodz ghetto, with a Star of David on his chest, 1940 – 1944.
A Jewish policeman helps two women move their belongings to new quarters in the Kovno ghetto. Under this picture I found an extensive explanation about the Kovno ghetto Jewish police force. The German created it in July 1941.
There were many more photos of Jewish policeman on other ghettos but they didn't have this Star of David badge on their chests…