Sabra Cactus Another View

Picture is courtesy of "maxnathans" from Flickr.
Readers who want to plant this cuctus in their garden are invited to email me and I'll refer them to maxnathans.

Sabra Cactus From Afar

Picture is courtesy of "maxnathans" from Flickr who wrote to me:

Sabra Cactus is the name I call this cactus- not the official name. My reasons are:
a. that it shows the Star of David which is the Israeli Sabra national emblem
b. That it grows here, in Kibbutz Metzuva, in the north of Israel.

Palestinian Point of View

The Star of David or Solomon’s seal had been in use by Muslims for generations and they have the right to love it the same as Jews and Christians who also used it a lot during history. But the state of affairs is influenced by politics and not by history or facts. E.g. Mike Odetalla wrote an article in the peoples voice website on 02/13/07 titled Teaching Hatred. Here are some excerpts about the way Palestinians relate to the Star of David:

The first time I was ever exposed to the Star of David was when I saw it painted on the gleaming metallic bodies of the Fantom jet fighters that were flying low overhead as they bombed and strafed the outskirts of our village … during the 1967 war...

The first Jew that I had ever seen in my life was an alien looking figure, who was standing atop a tank, which also had the Star of David painted on it

The Star of David was not a religious symbol to me and other Palestinians. It was symbol of oppression and fear.

ROSLIN

It seems that somebody uploaded the Da Vinci Code to his website so that now it is very convenient to copy and paste the needed paragraphs. So here is the famous excerpt about the Star of David from the Chapter titled ROSLIN:

The sanctuary was empty except for a handful of visitors listening to a young man giving the day's last tour. He was leading them in a single-file line along a well-known route on the floor-an invisible pathway linking six key architectural points within the sanctuary. Generations of visitors had walked these straight lines, connecting the points, and their countless footsteps had engraved an enormous symbol on the floor.
The Star of David, Langdon thought. No coincidence there. Also known as Solomon's Seal, this hexagram had once been the secret symbol of the stargazing priests and was later adopted by the Israelite kings-David and Solomon.

See: http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=Star+of+David+roslin&m=text

Sabra Cactus

Picture of Sabra Cactus Hexagram is courtesy of "maxnathans" who published it on Flickr and wrote to me:

The cactus in question belongs to the Cereus family. they grow meters high in my garden .
A few years ago a piece broke of because of stong winds, put the piece on the ground next to my garden and after a while, little plants started to grow and now as you can see they get bigger. The plants you can see are some years old . From the top they look like a Magen David really. When they get bigger they change a bit.

Pottery

Picture is courtesy of "Tobyotter" from Flickr who wrote to me:

MY father is Jewish and My mother was Catholic - So i was raised around both faiths. I always liked the Star of David - in pottery class I had a bit of clay left so I made this - as a reminder of Father.

Magic Stars

There are some kinds of hexagrams that have no religious connotation. One of them is used for mathematical calculations. Mutsumi Suzuki wrote an interesting article titled Magic Stars where he defines them and shows how to use them:

A six-sided magic star is constructed using 12 numbers, where all the edges add up to the same number
Edge A+C+F+H = edge A+D+G+K = edge B+C+D+E = ...