The Star of David (, , ) is a symbol generally recognized as representing both Jewish identity and the Jewish people's ethnic religion, Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles.
A derivation of the Seal of Solomon was used for decorative and mystical purposes by Kabbalistic Jews and Muslims. The hexagram appears occasionally in Jewish contexts since antiquity as a decorative motif, such as a stone bearing a hexagram from the arch of the 3rd–4th century Khirbet Shura synagogue. A hexagram found in a religious context can be seen in the Leningrad Codex, a manuscript of the Hebrew Bible from 11th-century Cairo.
Its association as a distinctive symbol for the Jewish people and their religion dates to 17th-century Prague. In the 19th century, the symbol began to be widely used by the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe, ultimately coming to represent Jewish identity or religious beliefs."The Flag and the Emblem" (MFA). It became representative of Zionism after it was chosen as the central symbol for a Jewish national flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897."The Flag and the Emblem" (MFA). "The Star of David became the emblem of Zionist Jews everywhere. Non-Jews regarded it as representing not only the Zionist current in Judaism, but Jewry as a whole."
By the end of World War I, it was an internationally accepted symbol for the Jewish people and used on the gravestones of fallen Jewish soldiers.
The star is the central symbol on the national flag of the State of Israel.
Roots
Unlike the menorah, the Lion of Judah, the shofar and the lulav, the hexagram was not originally a uniquely Jewish symbol."The Flag and the Emblem" (MFA). "Unlike the menora (candelabrum), the Lion of Judah, the shofar (ram's horn) and the lulav (palm frond), the Star of David was never a uniquely Jewish symbol." The hexagram, being an inherently simple geometric construction, has been used throughout human history in various motifs which were not exclusively religious. Kabbalah scholar Gershom Scholem noted how the symbol was found on a Jewish seal in Sidon from the 7th-century BCE, and how it was also found alongside other symbols that were known to not be of Jewish origin. It appeared as a decorative motif in both 4th-century synagogues and Christian churches in the Galilee region.
Gershom Scholem writes that the term "seal of Solomon" was adopted by Jews from Islamic magic literature, while he could not assert with certainty whether the term "shield of David" originated in Islamic or Jewish mysticism.Berlin, ed. (2011). p. 463. Scholem noted how the hexagram star was also found in Hinduism, where it is a symbol of the goddess Lakshmi, and Buddhism, where it is used as a meditation aid to achieve a sense of peace and harmony. Leonora Leet argues though that not just the terminology, but the esoteric philosophy behind it had pre-Islamic Jewish roots.Leet, Leonora (1999). "The Hexagram and Hebraic Sacred Science" in: The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah, pp. 212–217. Re-accessed 5 June 2022. She also shows that Jewish alchemists were the teachers of their Muslim and Christian counterparts, and that a way-opener such as Maria Hebraea of Alexandria (2nd or 3rd century CE; others date her earlier) already used concepts which were later adopted by Muslim and Christian alchemists and could be graphically associated with the symbolism of the upper and lower triangles constituting the hexagram, which came into explicit use after her time. The hexagram however only becomes widespread in Jewish magical texts and amulets (segulot) in the early Middle Ages, which is why most modern authors have seen Islamic mysticism as the source of the medieval Spanish Kabbalists' use of the hexagram. The name "Star of David" originates from King David of ancient Israel.
Use as Jewish emblem Only around one millennium later, however, did the star begin to be used as a symbol to identify Jewish communities, a tradition that seems to have started in Prague before the 17th century, and from there spread to much of Eastern Europe.
In the 19th century, it came to be adopted by European Jews as a symbol to represent Jewish religion or identity in the same manner the Christian cross identified that religion's believers."The Flag and the Emblem" (MFA). "According to Scholem, the motive for the widespread use of the Star of David was a wish to imitate Christianity. During the Emancipation, Jews needed a symbol of Judaism parallel to the cross, the universal symbol of Christianity." The symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community after it was chosen as the central symbol on a flag at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, due to its usage in some Jewish communities and its lack of specifically religious connotations. It was not considered an exclusively Jewish symbol until after it began to be used on the gravestones of fallen Jewish soldiers in World War I.Reuveni (2017). p. 43.
History of Jewish usage Early use as an ornament
The hexagram does appear occasionally in Jewish contexts since antiquity, apparently as a decorative motif. For example, in Israel, there is a stone bearing a hexagram from the arch of the 3rd–4th century Khirbet Shura synagogue in Galilee."King Solomon-s Seal", with credits Israeli Ministry of Foreign AffairsDan Urman & Paul V.M. Fesher (eds.). Ancient Synagogues, p. 612, BRILL, 1998 It also appears on a temple on Bar Kokhba Revolt coinage which dates from 135 CE. Originally, the hexagram may have been employed as an architectural ornament on synagogues, as it is, for example, on the cathedrals of Brandenburg and Stendal, and on the Marktkirche at Hanover. A hexagram in this form is found on the ancient synagogue at Capernaum.
The use of the hexagram in a Jewish context as a possibly meaningful symbol may occur as early as the 11th century, in the decoration of the carpet page of the famous Tanakh manuscript, the Leningrad Codex dated 1008. Similarly, the symbol illuminates a medieval Tanakh manuscript dated 1307 belonging to Rabbi Yosef bar Yehuda ben Marvas from Toledo, Spain.
Kabbalistic use
A hexagram has been noted on a Jewish tombstone in Taranto, Apulia in Southern Italy, which may date as early as the third century CE.Herbert M. Adler, JQR, vol. 14:111. Cited in "Magen David", Jewish Encyclopedia, retrieved May 28, 2010. The Jews of Apulia were noted for their scholarship in Kabbalah, which has been connected to the use of the Star of David.www.markfoster.net
Medieval Kabbalistic grimoires show hexagrams among the tables of segulot, but without identifying them as "Shield of David".
In the Renaissance, in the 16th-century Land of Israel, the book Ets Khayim conveys the Kabbalah of Ha-Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria) who arranges the traditional items on the seder plate for Passover into two triangles, where they explicitly correspond to Jewish mystical concepts. The six sfirot of the masculine Zer Anpin correspond to the six items on the seder plate, while the seventh sfira being the feminine Malkhut corresponds to the plate itself.Rabbi Blumenkrantz, "The Seder", The Laws of Pesach: A Digest 2010: Chap. 9. See also: , retrieved May 28, 2010.Simon Jacobson, op-ed, "Tzav-Passover: The Seder Plate" , A Meaningful Life, retrieved May 28, 2010.
However, these seder-plate triangles are parallel, one above the other, and do not actually form a hexagram.Gershom Scholem shows conclusively they do not form a hexagram. See, Hatakh ha-Zahav, Hotam Shelomoh u-Magen-David (Poalim, Hebrew) 1990:156.
According to G. S. Oegema (1996):
Isaac Luria provided the hexagram with a further mystical meaning. In his book Etz Chayim he teaches that the elements of the plate for the Seder evening have to be placed in the order of the hexagram: above the three sefirot "Crown", "Wisdom", and "Insight", below the other seven.G. S. Oegema, Realms of Judaism. The history of the Shield of David, the birth of a symbol (Peter Lang, Germany, 1996)
Similarly, M. Costa wrote that M. Gudemann and other researchers in the 1920s claimed that Isaac Luria was influential in turning the Star of David into a national Jewish emblem by teaching that the elements of the plate for the Seder evening have to be placed in the order of the hexagram. Gershom Scholem (1990) disagrees with this view, arguing that Isaac Luria talked about parallel triangles one beneath the other and not about the hexagram.Hatakh ha-Zahav, Hotam Shelomoh u-Magen-David (Poalim, 1990, Hebrew) p. 156
The Star of David at least since the 20th century remains associated with the number seven and thus with the Menorah, and popular accounts associate it with the six directions of space plus the center (under the influence of the description of space found in the Sefer Yetsira: Up, Down, East, West, South, North, and Center), or the Six Sefirot of the Male (Zeir Anpin) united with the Seventh Sefirot of the Female (Nukva).Rabbi Naftali Silberberg, "What is the Mystical Significance of the Star of David?" Some say that one triangle represents the ruling tribe of Judah and the other the former ruling tribe of Benjamin. It is also seen as a dalet and yud, the two letters assigned to Judah. There are 12 Vav, or "men", representing the 12 tribes or patriarchs of Israel.
Official usage in Central European communities
In 1354, King of Bohemia Charles IV approved for the Jews of Prague a red flag with a hexagram.Kashani, Reuven. "The National Flag" The Israel Review of Arts and Letters, 1998/107–8, Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1999). In 1460, the Jews of Ofen (Buda, now part of Budapest, Hungary) received King Matthias Corvinus with a red flag on which were two Shields of David and two stars.Schwandtner, Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum, ii. 148. Facsimile in M. Friedmann, Seder Eliyahu Rabbah ve-Seder Eliyahu Ztṭa, Vienna, 1901 In the first Hebrew prayer book, printed in Prague in 1512, a large hexagram appears on the cover. In the colophon is written: "Each man beneath his flag according to the house of their fathers...and he will merit to bestow a bountiful gift on anyone who grasps the Shield of David." In 1592, Mordechai Maizel was allowed to affix "a flag of King David, similar to that located on the Main Synagogue" on his synagogue in Prague. Following the Battle of Prague (1648), the Jews of Prague were again granted a flag, in recognition of their contribution to the city's defense. That flag showed a yellow hexagram on a red background, with a "Swedish star" placed in the center of the hexagram.
In the 1650s, the Jews of Vienna adopted a seal with the hexagram on it, likely choosing the motif used on the seal for the Jews of Prague. When a boundary was fixed between Vienna and the Jewish ghetto, a marker was fashioned which separated the two communities. The Christians were identified by the cross and the Jews by the hexagram. When the Jews of Vienna were expelled in 1669, many refugees fled to other cities which in turn used the symbol for their community seal.
As a symbol of Judaism and the Jewish community
The early proto-Zionist Hibbat Zion societies used the Star of David it as a national emblem, although Herzl was not aware of this. The symbol became representative of the worldwide Zionist community, and later the broader Jewish community, after it was chosen to represent the First Zionist Congress in 1897.
A year before the congress, Herzl had written in his 1896 Der Judenstaat: We have no flag, and we need one. If we desire to lead many men, we must raise a symbol above their heads. I would suggest a white flag, with seven golden stars. The white field symbolizes our pure new life; the stars are the seven golden hours of our working-day. For we shall march into the Promised Land carrying the badge of honor.