Wooden base flag
Out of stock
Wooden base table flag of Israel in a poly bag. Base, post and top are made in wood. Wooden pole height: 27cm. Fabric size:
6-1/2" x 4-1/2" (16x11cm).
The Origin of the Flag
The flag of the Jewish State is showing a Star of David on a tallit the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.
The Israelites used an indigo colored dye called tekhelet. This dye was very important in both Jewish and non-Jewish cultures of this time, and was used by royalty and the upper class in dyeing their clothing, sheets, curtains, etc.
The Torah commanded to dye on of the threads of the tallit (prayer shawl) with tekhelet; when one looks at this dye he will think of the blue sky, and of the God above in Heaven. Tekhelet corresponds to the color of the divine revelation (Midrash Numbers Rabbah xv.). Sometime near the end of the Talmudic era (500-600 CE) the industry which produced this dye collapsed. It became rarer and rarer; over time the Jewish community lost the tradition of which species of shellfish produced this dye. Since Jews were then unable to fulfill this commandment, they have since left their tzitzit (tallit strings) white. However, in remembrance of the commandment to use the tekhelet dye, it became common for Jews to have blue or purple stripes on their tallit. The idea that the blue and white colors were the national colors of the Jewish people was early on voiced by Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894), an Austrian Jewish poet. In his poem, "Judah's Colors", he writes:
"When sublime feelings his heart fill, he is mantled in the colors of his country. He stands in prayer, wrapped in a sparkling robe of white.
The hems of the white robe are crowned with broad stripes of blue; Like the robe of the High Priest, adorned with bands of blue threads.
These are the colors of the beloved country, blue and white are the borders of Judah; White is the radiance of the priesthood, and blue, the splendors of the firmament. (A. L. Frankl, Juda's Farben, in Ahnenbilder (Leipzig, 1864), p. 127).
In 1885 the agricultural village of Rishon LeZion used a blue and white to mark its third anniversary. They used a blue and white cloth, with a Star of David and the Hebrew word "Maccabee", was used in 1891 by the Bnai Zion Educational Society.
Learn here more about the birth of this important symbol.
Item code: a23g91
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