Roy Shinar Star of David Ceiling

Magen David appears on Roy Shinar's painted Ceiling.

Roy Shinar Star of David window

Photo courtesy of painter Roy Shinar (Mobile: 972503596500 son of my dear friend painter Itzhak Shhwartz ) whom I met yesterday drawing portraits in five minutes in the Jerusalem Annual Art Fair at Chutzot Hayotzer.Roy told me that he used the central original triangle in the window and added to it the missing triangles so that the end result is a camouglaged Star of David.

Montefiori coat of arms

On my way to the Jerusalem Annual Art Fair in Chutzot Hayotcer I stopped to look at the Sir Moshe Montefiori
Wind Mill in the Mishkanot Shaananim quarter of Jerusalem. Behind a glass window I saw the wagon that used to carry this British philantropist on his many journeys in Israel and in Europe between 1827 and 1875, journeys that were intented to strengthen the Jewish settlement in Israel. On the door of this wagon my eye caught three yellow Stars of David on a blue square background and two smaller red ones beside them..

Montefiori coat of arm -updated

Stan Tenen Reviews Uri Ofir's Research

Stan Tenen from Meru Foundation sent me the following email from which I bring you three excerpts:

I just read through Uri Ofir's paper on the origin of the Magen David
In his Summary, before the Introduction, he says that the origin of the Magen David is in the tabernacle. Obviously, this is correct. That's in part what my drawings are intended to show.
In section 2B, where he refers to the pomegranate-flower: This is a minor misunderstanding. It's not only the flower of the pomegranate that's important, but rather, the fact that pomegranate seeds are packed together closely, just like the spheres that make up the "13-petaled rose", otherwise known as the "Shushon flower", otherwise known as the cubeoctahedron-cum-lilies. The pomegranate flower mimics the 6-points of the double-tetrahedron; it's another example of the Shushon in nature. Each different fruit and tree mentioned in the Garden of Eden contributes a particular quality to defining the elements of creation, the Menorah, the Temple, et al. The pomegranate teaches us sphere-packing.
          In section 12, Ofir discusses that the Menorah is made of a single vessel, one piece of gold. This is also correct. The entire living system is the "one piece of gold". The vine, the chain of being, is never broken. And the Shushon-flower, and its alternative form, the 3,10 torus knot, consists of a single unbroken ribbon.

Planar Close Packing

Troy R. Bishop wrote an article titled Starring the Circle where he shows the connection between the Star of David and atoms. This sounds important because atoms are the bricks of the world and the question, which we are dealing here with is in fact: how does the six pointed star represents the world?
Each atom (or coin, in his illustration) if not on an edge is touched by exactly six neighboring coins
This arrangement is known in solid-state physics, which concerns itself with the way atoms arrange themselves together in solid matter, as planar close packing…this pattern is repeated throughout the entire arrangement …the Star of David… is inherent in a figure based on seven circles.
Troy R. Bishop goes on and shows that the number seven represents the maximum possible number of manifestations of the number three (The Star of David is made from two triangles. Triangle is based on three angles, that's the origin of its name).
There are just seven possible combinations of any three items, alone or in combination, and they are:
1. First item alone
2. Second item Alone
3. Third item alone
4. First item and second item together
5. First item and third item together
6. Second item and third item together
7. First, second, and third item together
The Star of David is first and foremost a geometric shape, a hexagram. The language of geometry (shapes) is translated perfectly into the language of Math (numbers). No wonder there is so many different articles calculating the numbers behind this shape. What I personally like in Troy R. Bishop's article is the poetic sound of the words Planar Close Packing.

Black Obelisk

Picture copied from Wikipedia entry:Black Obelisk

There's a sort of a six-pointed star on the "Black Obelisk" of Shalmaneser III (858-824 BC) discovered in Nimrud in northern Iraq. The obelisk had been erected in 825 BCE. It is the earliest ancient description of an Israelite. Archaeologist Sir Henry Layard discovered it in 1846.

There are twenty reliefs on this obelisk describing subdued kings. In one of them this six-pointed star is above King Jehu's head. The translation of the Assyrian caption above the scene is:

The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: I received from him silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden vase with pointed bottom, golden tumblers, golden buckets, tin, a staff for a king [and] spears.

Closing a Circle

Our first 3D folded paper Magen David Sukkah Lampshades exhibited in the first store, in the Jewish quarter of the Old city of Jerusalem, near the place where the Magen David was invented 3000 years ago, Mount Zion, King David's city...