Man's Tombstone, Woman's Tombstone

Lindsey Friedman studied one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in North America, the Shaarai Shomayim cemetery, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which was founded in 1747 and discovered that The Magen David was put on the men’s tombstones while a chanukiyah was put on the women’s.
Friedman said the reason was that women light candles while men are more prominent in synagogue.

King Solomon Sword

On the WWW I saw an offer to buy a gold King Solomon Sword made in Toledo, Spain.
The images on the sword included the Solomon’s seal and the Ark of the Covenant.
I liked the merchants' trial to link the sword to the famous story about the sentence of Solomon, where

Two women were fighting for a child and King Solomon, in order to find out which one was telling the truth , gave his sword to a soldier and ordered him to split the baby in two, giving one half to each of the women. The real mother begged the king not to kill the child and to give him to the other woman. In this way, King Solomon knew immediately which one was lying showing great wisdom and fairness.

Roy Shinar Star of David Ceiling1

Roy told me that he painted this ceiling in the Synagogue of Maalot after seeing a similar design on a book of old Synagogues' frescos. This specific one is from Morocco and he liked this shape that looks like three eight figures which reminded him of a pumpkin.
Copyright: Roy Shinar 2006

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.