Magen David, the so-called "shield of David" - a six-pointed star, a hexagram, adorns ancient books and objects of Jewish ritual.
It was worn by residents of medieval ghettos and victims of Nazism.
The Star of David was portrayed by the authors of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel cartoons - so that no one was mistaken in the address of their smashing satire.
The same star adorns Jewish tombstones around the world. Russian anti-Semites claim in their press that the six-pointed star is a sign of the devil, a symbol of universal evil …
What place does it occupy in the Jewish tradition? First, a little history.
The six-pointed star was used as a decorative element and, possibly, a mystical symbol - even in the deepest antiquity among many peoples. But it was especially often used by the ancient Jews, mainly on household items.
The oldest known image of this kind is the 7th century BC seal found in Tzidon, which belonged to a certain Yeshua ben Yeshayau.
During the period of the Second Temple, the hexagram along with the pentagram (five-pointed star, also known as the "shield of Solomon") adorned various objects and buildings, both Jewish and non-Jewish. As an example, we can note the synagogue in Kfar Nakhum (2-3 century AD), in the ornament of which alternate
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five- and six-pointed stars, and cruciform figures with broken ends (reminiscent of a swastika). However, in the Hellenistic era, Magen David was not used in Jewish symbolism.
A thousand years ago, the hexagonal star was an international sign. It was found on early Christian amulets and in Muslim ornaments called the "seal of Solomon". But already in
In the 13-14th centuries, Magen David appears on the pediments of German synagogues and on Jewish manuscripts - although this time, only as a decorative element, without any symbolic meaning. In the same era, they began to decorate amulets and mezuzahs, and in the late Middle Ages, and Jewish texts on the Kabbalah.
The term Magen David itself dates back to the era of the Babylonian Gaons. He is mentioned as the legendary "shield of King David" in the text interpreting the magical "alphabet of the angel Metatron." This interpretation has become widespread among the Ashkenazi communities. The grandson of Ramban (14th century) wrote about the hexagonal "shield of David" in his work on the Cabal. It was argued that a shield of a similar shape was used by the soldiers of the victorious army of King David. True, his personal seal, as some sources indicate, did not contain an image of a star, but of a shepherd's staff and a bag. But the royal seal of Shlomo (Solomon), the son of David, had the shape of a five-pointed star.
In the 14th and 18th centuries, Magen David was widely used by Jewish and non-Jewish printers and is often found on family coats of arms. IN
In 1354, Charles IV granted the Prague Jews the right to have their own flag - a red cloth with a six-pointed star. Magen David also decorated the official seal of the community. During the 17-18 centuries, this sign was adopted by the Jews of Moravia and Austria, and then Italy and the Netherlands. Somewhat later, it spread among the communities of Eastern Europe. In kabbalistic circles, the "shield of David" was interpreted as "the shield of the son of David," i.e. Mashiach. Followers of the false messiah Shabtai Zvi (end
17th century) saw him as a symbol of imminent deliverance.
In the 19th century, emancipated Jews chose Magen David as their national symbol in opposition to the Christian cross. It was during this period that the six-pointed star was adopted by almost all communities of the Jewish world. She began to appear on the buildings of synagogues and Jewish institutions, on monuments and tombstones3, on seals and letterheads, on household and religious items.
Since 1799, Magen David was first used as a specific Jewish symbol in anti-Semitic cartoons. In 1822, the Rothschild family, having received a title of nobility, included the Magen David in their family coat of arms.
The first Zionist congress in 1897 adopted the six-pointed star as the symbol of the Jewish national movement, and in the same year it graced the cover of the first issue of Theodor Herzl magazine, Die Welt.
Over time, Magen David appeared on the state blue and white flag of Israel, although a more authentic and ancient Jewish emblem - the Menorah, the image of a temple lamp, was chosen as the emblem.
For the Jews of the Torah, Magen David is not devoid of a generally recognized semantic load. There is a tradition to decorate a sukkah with it - a special hut in which a Jew lives during the Sukot holiday. The six points of the star hung in the sukkah correspond to the six "guests" attending each Jewish sukkah on the first six days of the Sukkot: Abraham, Isaac, Yaakov, Moshe, Aaron, and Yosef. The seventh “guest” unites them all - King David.
Another detail: Magen David has 12 ribs, which corresponds to the 12 tribes of Israel, over which David reigned and which will be restored with the coming of the Messiah, the direct heir of King David.
The Kabbalists also teach that the six points of the "Star of David" correspond to the six spatial directions - earth, sky, north, south, east, west - which means the omnipotence of Gd. An interesting linguistic detail: in Hebrew, the words Magen David also consist of six letters.
The number of edges of both triangles forming the Magen David indicates the "perfect" number 6, equal to the sum of its factors. This number has long been endowed with mystical meaning in various esoteric teachings.
Perhaps it was the geometric feature of the “Jewish star” that mystified anti-Semites from different countries. The Nazis marked the Jews with a yellow "badge of shame." One of the leading Russian anti-Semites seriously argued that the six-pointed typographic stars were a secret sign of the "Jewish-Masons".