Ephraim Moses Lilien

Illustrator and photographer Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874-1925) "father of Jewish bookplates," created ex libris with distinctive Jewish motifs. He was born in Galicia but settled in Germany in 1899. He illustrated for the Zionist movement and was the one took the most famous photo of Herzl on the balcony of his hotel. Lilien traveled to Jerusalem in 1905 and helped found the first Jewish art Academy, Bezalel.

 

One of his works includes four large Stars of David on a circle made of many small ones. In the center there are palms representing the Kohanim (priest) blessing.

 

Another work is "From Ghetto to Zion" postcard, which was chosen at the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901 in Bazel to represent the movement's message. The work shows a white angel pointing for a ghetto Jew (who is sitting bent circled with barbed wire) towards a farmer cultivating the soil of Israel; at the bottom of the work appear two Stars of David and words from the book of prayer

 

"And may our eyes behold when thou returnest unto Zion in compassion"  

 

On the tab of a stamp made of this postcard there's the word Zion in a Star of David creating an un ambiguous identification between the word (Zion) and the Shape (Star of David).

 

The Seder Plate

Today I posted the following note to the editor of the "Star of David" page on Wikipedia:

 

You wrote: "However, the sign [Star of David] is nowhere to be found in classical kabbalistic texts themselves, such as the Zohar, the writings of Rabbi Isaac Luria and the like".

 

I read on G.S. Oegema's book (Realms of Judaism, The history of the Shield of David, the birth of a symbol, Peter Lang, Germany, 1996, ISBN 3-631-30192-8) that "Isaac Luria provided the Shield of David with a further mystical meaning. In his book "Etz Hachayim" he teaches that the elements of the plate for the Seder evening have to be placed in the order of the hexagram: above the three sefirot "Crown "Wisdom" and "Insight", below the other seven".

"The Stone which the Builders Refused"

Today I visited Dr. Zeev Goldman, 101 years old, in his apartment in Jerusalem. He invited me to talk about his research on the Star of David and lent me Dr. G.S. Oegema book, Realms of Judaism, The history of the Shield of David, the birth of a symbol, Peter Lang, Germany, 1996, ISBN 3-631-30192-8).

 

In the acknowledgments Dr. G.S. Oegema tells about a touring exhibition to commemorate the introduction of the yellow badge in Europe 50 years earlier. The exhibition traveled to many German cities from 1991 and was meant to improve understanding between Jews and Germans. Dr. G.S. Oegema was asked to prepare this exhibition and that's what triggered him to write his book.

 

What a twist in history! The yellow badge that made such a distance between Jews and Nazis during the holocaust became a source of getting closer.  Reminds me of the Bible verse Psalms 118:22:

 

"The stone [which] the builders refused is become the head [stone] of the corner"…

 

Lost Culture

Star of David remains from a destroyed synagogue in Bonn, Germany.

Picture is courtesy of Maxg from Flickr.

Destroyed Synagogue

Star of David on a German sign in Bonn - picture is courtesy of maxg from Flickr who translated the sign from German: 

"Close to this place stood the synagogue, built in the year 1878, and with the Nazi acts of violence against our Jewish fellow citizens on 9 November 1938, destroyed."

Who invented the Jewish Star of David?

Most Jews are proud of their Star of David without knowing who invented it or where it came from. Even the renowned Rabbi Moshe Feinstein wrote explicitly in his book, Igrot Moshe, that "We don't have the origin of the form of the Magen David".

 

When asked some cling to the legend about the Shield of King David or the Seal of King Solomon, Or the Shield of Bar Kochba, but they have no artifact or research to prove their argument.

 

Others say that the Star of David came from the Yellow patch that the Nazis made the Jews wear during the Holocaust. They believe that the fact that it is now in the center of the Israeli flag is a kind of poetic justice, similar to the Christian explanation about the origin of their emblem from the structure on which Jesus was crucified; Measure for measure – what served as a source of shame became a source of pride.

 

Not knowing about the origin of your emblem is not as bad as knowing that it came from other cultures. Many young Israelis travel to India and are surprised to discover their national symbol on the walls of many ancient temples. The Internet is full with theories about the ancient pagan and astrological origins of this symbol.  It is important to notice that although the Star of David is a hexagram, a six pointed star, not every hexagram is a Star of David.

 

Uri Ofir came up with a research in which he has a very good explanation about the origin of the Jewish Magen David from the Menorah in the Tabernacle. It was made by the Lord and not by a human being about a year after the exodus of the sons of Israel from Egypt. This theory satisfies the need to know but more than that – it provides a new source of pride, and a new educational tool.

 

What amazes me is that very few people know about Uri Ofir's research. He is lecturing about it every week for years and the audiences are always surprised and disappointed they didn't hear about it beforehand. I hope that by translating his research from Hebrew and by writing this posting I'll help the message get through.

 

The scope of this blog

This blog is focused on Jewish Stars of David (Magen David), but includes information also about the following subjects which refer to other sorts of hexagrams in other cultures:

Bronze Age hexagrams

Iron Age hexagrams

Arabs' and Muslims' hexagrams

Christian hexagrams

Eastern Religions hexagrams

Alchemy hexagrams

Witchcraft, Occultism hexagrams

Astrology hexagrams

Estoiles

Mullets (or molets)

Chinese checkers

Shatkona (Yantra), Mandala, Indian hexagrams

Snowflakes

Scientific

Raelism

Non Jewish heraldry and flags

Red Magen David

Theosophy

Zion Christian Church

Latter-day Saints (Mormons)

Buddhism Hinduism and Jainism