Friday, March 16, 2007

Morocco 25 centimes Coin

Solomon’s sealSolomon’s seal on a 25 centimes Morocco coin which was issued in 1921. Photo is courtesy of Approche numismatique.

Pentagram Within Hexagram

Pentagram Within HexagramThere were times when both pentagram and hexagram were named Star of David, or Solomon's seal, but to add confusion here is a strange phenomenon where the one is surrounded by the other. The coin is from Morocco its value is 100 francs and it was issued on 1953.
Picture is courtesy of Approche Numismatique.

Mamluk Mosque, Delhi

Picture of Solomon’s seal in the 1190 Great Mosque of Delhi (Mamluk) is courtesy of "philputnam" who published it on Flickr. Delhi is full of Islamic monuments bearing Solomon’s seals.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Star Mosque, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Plenty of Solomon’s seals (from 1926) appear on the walls of The Star Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which is a Mughal style mosque with hundreds of big and small stars as decorations… Picture is courtesy of "fatal Cleopatra" from Flickr.

Astronaut Ilan Ramon


Astronaut Ilan Ramon felt as a representative of the Jewish people:

·        He took into space a mezuzah with a Star of David, a microfiche of the Bible and a tiny Torah scroll.

·        He used to carry a Star of David on his shirtsleeve.

·        He was not religious but he decided to eat kosher food in space.

 

Rabbi Shraga Simmons wrote:

After the tragedy, I saw an editorial cartoon that depicted a father and son, gazing at the night sky. Seven stars dotted the heavens -- six regular stars, and one Star of David. As the father placed his arm around the boy's shoulder, he pointed to the Star of David and explained: "That one is Ilan Ramon.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Solomon's Seal Legend

Joseph Jacobs and M. Seligsohn wrote in the Jewish Encyclopedia:
The legend that Solomon possessed a seal ring on which the name of God was engraved and by means of which he controlled the demons... is especially developed by Arabic writers, who declare that the ring... was partly brass and partly iron. With the brass part of the ring Solomon signed his written commands to the good genii, and with the iron part he signed his commands to the evil genii, or devils...The legend of a magic ring by means of which the possessor could exorcise demons was current in the first century, as is shown by Josephus' statement ("Ant." viii. 2) that one Eleazar exorcised demons in the presence of Vespasian by means of a ring, using incantations composed by Solomon.
The Arabs afterward gave the name of "Solomon's seal" to the six-pointed star-like figure (see Magen, Dawid) engraved on the bottom of their drinking-cups.

Koch Fractals

Koch Fractals HexagramKoch Fractals look like six-pointed stars.
Picture is coied from Wikipedia (I slightly edited it with Photoshop).
In the Wikipedia entry for Fractal they say
a fractal is a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is (at least approximately) a reduced-size copy of the whole.