TikkunGer's Star of David

I like this shiny ambience - it glorifies the Star of David and suits its inner meaning...
Photographed by TikkunGer from Flickr (a very catchy WWW-name) who sent me the following:

The photograph was taken last winter, either in late January or early February. I just purchased a digital camera and was entering the world of photography for the first time in my life. I have no real photographic background or experience taking pictures. Anyhow I was learning the different features on my camera and wanted to practice with macro and super macro settings, so I gathered all of the subject items I could find to photograph in my apartment and began snapping pictures. This picture is out of my Hanukiah and is one of my first Judaica purchases, as I'm just recently becoming more involved with leading an observant life. There really isn't much spiritual significance, other than I'm trying to capture my growth as a jew in all sorts of interesting ways including through photography.

Copyright: TikkunGer 2006

Melly's Menorah - Back

Behind this Star of David picture is an interesting Jewish-Identity-story which "baslow" was kind enough to share with me: About the picture: I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home but no longer practiced the religion by the time I met my wife, who is not Jewish. She still goes to church but, over the years, has changed from Catholic, to Lutheran, to Episcopalian depending on which church in our neighborhood afforded her the most nourishing community. Our children have always been free to choose their own paths with respect to religion and, as a result, they have developed very individual, non-classifiable beliefs. Although they are not Jewish by Jewish law they both consider themselves to have at least one foot in the Jewish community. They have a father who is Jewish and who tells stories of an Orthodox childhood; they have relatives who are Jewish, some of them still Orthodox; and they live in New York City, the capital of Judaism in the United States. They understand very well that they would have been "Jewish enough for Hitler". When the winter holiday season comes around (Christmas/Hanukkah) we usually bring out the old children's books that the kids enjoyed and read them out loud. Sometimes the kids, who have both developed interests in acting, will recite passages and perform episodes in the books. My daughter Ruth has a special affection for "Melly's Menorah", about a Jewish Gopher Girl (I'm not making this up). She especially loves to enact the moment when Melly recoils in horror as her father, cleaning the house in preparation for Hanukkah festivities, obliviously vacuums up all of the Hanukkah cards she has been making.
Copyright: "baslow" from Flickr

Ice Star of David

There's a strong connection between the Menorah and the Star of David. Israeli researcher Uri Ofir claims the Menorah is the origin of this Jewish national emblem. I searched for Menorah on Flickr and got a few hundred results, out of which I chose those that showed the Magen David. This one is surely the most interesting since it is made from ice...

Picture is courtesy of Azyxa who wrote me:

I took a photo of it because it was a beautiful and impressive ice sculpture. No more, no less.

May David's Shield Protect You

Picture is hoto courtesy of Ingrid who published it on Flickr under the cool title: May David's Shield Protect You, which sounds like the famous line from Stars War "May the Force be with you".
Ingrid added on her Flickr page that the photo shows the house of mourning In Cologne, Germany built in 1929/30 in neo-classicistic style by architect Robert Stern.
This morning I got the following e-mail from her:
By chance I discovered a little Jewish cemetery in Cologne, hidden under old trees, a magic place. I liked and still like it very much and my interest in the history of Jews in Cologne arose. Once having started I discovered more and more; I visited the synagogue (Roonstrase) and the cemetery in Koln-Bocklemund and I collected some information about Jewish rites of burial. I took the photo some time ago and I uploaded it just now because I wanted to underline my wish that God may protect little Israel in these bad times.

Apophysis

This amazing Star of David work is published here courtesy of Dzeni who published it on Flickr photo sharing software under the title Magen Sky. Dzeni added there that "This one may end up as a greeting card"
Dzeni wrote to me the following:
The Stars in question are fractals and were created with a
lovely little program called "Apophysis".
I don't know what fractals are and how Apophysis works but I do know that like this photo...a lot.

Theresienstadt

Picture taken by Pierre Friedmann from Flickr who wrote to me the following:

This Star of David was shot outside the Theresienstadt concentration camp in the Czec Republic. It stands as a part of a small memorial in what used to be - if I am not mistaken - the town's morgue. The memorial consists of numerous empty ash boxes which can also be seen in the background.

Hex-alpha

The shape of the Star of David has many synonyms and is open to numerous interpretations; part of them even received an official name. The above one consists of six reiterations on the first letter of the Latin alphabet - A.
That's why this symbol's synonym is hex-alpha.
I designed it in Photoshop so that the A- units will stand out but usually the same shape that is called Star of David is also called hex-alpha.
In a similar way the shape of the five-pointed star is called pent alpha.
We can also visualize the triangles that surround the hexagon in the shape of the Star of David to thorns. This opens the way to an interesting interpretation of the verse from Song of Songs 2:2:
As a lily among thorns
So is my love among the daughters
-"my love" is the soul, the internal part of the human being, and it dwells, according to this verse, among six thorns… like the hexagon between its six triangles.