Star of David

Only after one Hundred year, in 1726, we find again this sign on a tombstone, this time in Bordeaux, and again in 1736 in Prague…on the grave of rabbi David Openheimer…at the end of the eighteenth century the emblem became more common. In the 20'th century, after two world wars reaped blood harvest of millions of people, the Magen David becomes prevalent in military graveyards as a mark of the grave of a Jewish combatant who fell for the sake of his homeland, alongside a cross that waves on his Christian colleague, on a crescent that waves on the grave of his Moslem colleague.

In is a known fact that the hexagram which was called by the Arabs Solomon’s Seal, was called by the Jews in the Middle Ages the Star of David. From the 12th century to the 18th century this emblem appears in hundreds of documents, Jewish and non-Jewish, all of them in the field of practical Kabala and fortune telling (See: Abraham Yaari, Hebrew, Jewish Printers, Jerusalem, 1943) and there is no exception but David Gans’ Magen David book. One of the reasons he gave this title to his book was his first name, but at the same time he removed the mystery from the essence of this emblem. According to our knowledge he was the first in doing so, and we find here again the typical trait of his general attitude toward science. The Star of David for him is not some magical formula but a geometric formula. The Star of David is not a witchcraft tool, but the excellent emblem of astronomy.

When two triangles are drawn one on top of the other, people of our generation use to call it Star of David, saying that a drawing like this was engraved on King David’s shield, and because the main element of measurement is the measurement of the triangles.

In David gans’ period this emblem still didn’t had a symbolic national wide significance, and the opinion that the origin of this significance was in Prague seems right. The Jewish community of Prague was the only community that received in 1354 from King Karl the 4th the right to hoist a flag, which carried the Star of David. [See photo above] Then, of course, it had only the quality of a local emblem, without any significance to the Jewish people as a whole. The people generally accepted this emblem only after the eighteenth century, and only the Zionist national aspiration at the end of the 19th century made the Magen David a general symbol of Israel.

Another synagogue of the Byzantine period, at Eshtamoa in the territory of Judea, also shows this star. Drawn in curved lines somewhat similar to [the one found in Capernaum] it decorates the lintel of the entrance gate.

The ruins of the synagogue of Marut in Upper Galilee, dated as late as the eighth century, shows the biggest example found so far of this star. These data being correct, it would mean that synagogues could still be built in the Arab period, and that their designs can be determined from the remains.

The fact that this star appears several times in these ruins [of Caprnaum] might suggest that it played a special role in the thinking of the Jewish community of that time. But the existence of many other symbols next to it prevents us from seeing it as a specifically Jewish symbol. We can only conclude that it was acceptable to Jewish thought.

Also, the use of this symbol by communities outside the Land of Israel does not change this picture. Even a seventh-century tombstone in Taronto, South Italy, above the grave of the wife of Leon, son of David, which has a hexagram chiseled in front on the name David, is no proof to the contrary; nor do other tombstones of the early and later Middle Ages, which link the hexagram to the name David. A very picturesque example of such a linkage is a tombstone of a German Rabbi of the 17th Century. His name was David Gans, the word Gans meaning goose. A carving on his tombstone shows the bird on top of a hexagram, the latter may stand for David, or it may refer to his last work, Magen David.

The author has found in the cenetery altogether 17 tombstones with the David's star...in three cases, including the oldest tombstone from 1529 the name of Menahem or Mendl...It was assumed that the oldest David's star was on David Ganz tombstone from 1613 ...the name menahem is another name for the Messiah. It can be concluded that the undercurrent of this use was messianist meaning of this symbol' its connection with the expected arrival of the Messiah Ben David.

"What is straight?" As soon as we become aware that each line in our universe, even this short one: ––––––––––– of one inch length, is in fact an arc (notwithstanding the infinite smallness of its bend), the following questions arise:
"Is there anything straight in geometry and elsewhere?";
"What is straight(ness) altogether?";
"Since there are no absolute straight lines in the material universe, could there be absolute
straightness on the level of morals and ethics?"
The initial question "what is straight" may seem irrelevant in view of the short line of one inch, but what about the connecting lines between Rome and Moscow, or Washington and Beijing, or Tokyo and Sydney, etc? Every pilot knows that on these long distant flights he does not fly a straight line but an arc in accordance with the shape of the globe.
Likewise in ethics and morals. In our daily affairs it seems to us rather clear what is straight, and what is not. On a bigger scale, however, we should not simply start out "just straight ahead". If doing so, we would most likely miss the mark. Like the pilot for his long distant flight, we need very accurate and detailed instructions guiding us to our destination. We find such instructions in the Torah, that is, the Divine Instruction of our Creator and Maker. In this context it is important to realize that the Torah is based upon the dynamic principle, and not upon the mechanistic or static one. Evidence thereof we find in its whole concept as well as in many passages, yet foremost in the Divine Name itself: "I'll be that I'll be" (the common translation "I am that I am" is incorrect, perhaps due to a static, mechanistic world view).
Throughout history, from Nimrod the founder of Babel, down to Hitler and Stalin, many people tried to follow what deemed straight in their own eyes. They failed, and wrought havoc. That shows that the term straight in its moral and ethical sense should be understood from the perspective of our Divine destination and the shortest and safest way towards it, and not from our own projections. This holds true for the matters of our daily lives as well, from the kind and quantity of food we take via the work and business we do up to decisions in leading positions. With this point in view, the Torah enjoins:
"There is a way which seemeth right (lit. straight) unto a man but the end thereof is the way to death" (Prov. 14:12; 16:25).
Therefore, "You shall not do every man whatsoever is right (liter. straight) in his own eyes ... you shall do which is right (liter. straight) in the eyes of the Lord thy God" (Deut. 12:8; 13:19).
Singing probably in this train of thought, King David said: "... He leads me in the circuits of righteousness [ מעגלי צדק ] for his name's sake" (Ps. 23:3). The word circuits here indicates the circumference set by the Torah, but also hints at the beneficial flow of energy welling in the Torah's circuits. The Creator in his infinity both encompasses these circles and is the center thereof - as shown in our graph. We humans, created in his image, may try to imagine him and his laws of creation, but cannot fully comprehend either.
As scientists are learning more and more to ask their questions not against nature (as taught by Francis Bacon, and others) but in accordance with the nature of the things in order to get a valid answer, likewise should we learn in view of our relations with our surroundings to look at things not from the angle of our own ideas and ideals (as straight as they may look) but from the point of the Divine, the Eternal, the Creative Life Force. As there are no contradictions between the Divine revelation and true science, the return to the original Hebrew Bible, i.e. the Tanakh, and its kabbalistic foundation would be very conducive to this end. It would be truly enlightening, and beneficial as well.