Hot answers tagged symbols-symbology
14
The Bible prohibits tattoos. (Leviticus 19:28). I'm sure the athlete you describe means well, but it's still prohibited if he is in fact Jewish. He was likely mistaken or unaware. (Alternatively, a non-Jew could choose to express solidarity with the Jewish people by obtaining a Jewish star tattoo, if it floats his boat; that really doesn't do anything one ...
12
Fascinating! I've always wondered about this myself.
BaMidbar Rabbah 2:7 has a list of each tribe and its flag, with the colour, stone, and symbol associated with it, which I believe is probably the original source (or one of the earliest that we'll find) for this. I'd be interested to see what other people come up with.
Interestingly, the list is a little ...
12
Obviously, I can't actually speak for the family involved, however, in general, giving any kind of Christian religious symbol to a Jewish family will be considered offensive. The meaning conveyed by the cross for most Jews is very different from the meaning that Christians see in it, and not the least bit positive.
12
In Orach Chayim, it refers to a comment by the Yad Efrayim, in the margin.
The Business Halacha Institute tells me that in Choshen Mishpat it points to a chidush [a novel thought or opinion].
9
I think the conclusion of that article sums it up very well. Indeed, in halachic Judaism, tattooing is forbidden, see Shalom's answer. (I can't say for Reform or Conservative, though I imagine they'd be more lenient.) However, tattooed people are not shunned or treated differently.
Personally, I find a tattoo of the Star of David ironic. Generally, if a ...
9
Assuming it was your father's Mother's Mother or some combination thereof who was Jewish, then it might be best for you to find a Large cross with a small Jewish star.
The Jewelry you currently have has strong associations with "Messianic Jews", or "Jews for Jesus", both groups which are roundly rejected by Jewish groups as being either an oximoron or ...
8
I would suggest that it probably reflects the beliefs of some messianic Christians who call themselves Jews (and some who are technically Jewish by the Jewish standard of matrilineal descent), and I would interpret it to mean that you are of that ilk. Many Jews (and I count myself among them) do not have any nice thoughts towards these groups, to put it ...
8
Indeed, the Lubavitcher Rebbe zt"l (sicha of Shabbos Parshas Ki Tisa 5741 secs. 55-57) called for them to always be depicted as square, in keeping with the Gemara you mentioned. (And Chabad publications long before that, as far back as 1942 at least, followed the same convention.)
He states that shape with rounded tops was popularized by non-Jewish ...
7
The luchot are a 1 amah cube of sapphire (6x6x6 tefachim) (Baba Basra 14a)
3x6x6 tefachim individually (Baba Basra 14a)
The writing filled each side ("tradition". I think I saw this in a Gemara too)
There are more words in the first 5 commandments, so the letters were a smaller size to fit.(Mabit)
The letters were carved straight through the luchot. (Shmot ...
6
Taamei HaMinhagim 706 says it is done for Kabalistic reasons. In the notes, he mentions in the name of the Imrei Noam that the Gematria of the word "Tapuach" (the Hebrew word for apple) is the same as the Gematria of "S'e Akeida" - so we eat the apple to recall the Akeida (Binding of Isaac).
6
The Taz (OC 473:4) suggests the reason is so that we can eat it, because it is forbidden to eat roasted meat on the Seder night.
The Mishna Berura (:23) quotes two other reasons. First, that we use an egg, which is commonly served at a meal to mourners, to represent our mourning the loss of the Beit HaMikdash and the Korbanot. Second, the word for egg in ...
6
Welcome to Mi Yodeyah, Frederick.
The "average" Jew does not have a symbol for "evil" or the "devil," especially the latter. The "devil" is a Christian innovation shared also by Islam, and which probably owes some of its origins from pagan and other non-Christian sources such as Zoroastrianism and Manichaeism, both of which are dualistic religions. ...
5
1) The Maharil explains that the apple is connected with "חקל תפוחים קדישין"; when Yaakov came to get the brochos from Yitzchok, he had the smell of an apple orchard upon his clothing. Besides for the Kabbilistic meanings, (according to one opinion) this episode happened on Rosh Hashana (GR”A O.C. 583:8)
2) There are three types of benefit derived from an ...
5
Gershom Scholem has an essay entitled "The Star of David: History of a Symbol", in The Messianic Idea in Judaism (New York: Schocken Books, 1995), 257-281. In this essay, he chronicles the development of different theories that accounted for its origin (in David's shield, in Solomon's signet ring, etc), its usage in Christian and Islamic art and its frequent ...
5
From: http://www.shmais.com/articles/stories/4232-a-story-of-the-rebbe-225-the-artist
A non Torah-observant artist once wanted to give the [Lubavitch] Rebbe a portrait he had painted of him. However, the Rebbe noticed that the picture showed him with his fingers intertwined, and he explained to the artist in terms that he would relate to as to why we do ...
4
Ben Ish Hai (Shana Bet Parashat Pinehas sim. 13) actually endorses the Hamsa.
A few months ago, I asked HaGaon HaRav Meir Elyiahu Shelit"a this question (question 108 on RabiMeir.com):
שמעתי שקדן גדול בהיסטוריה, כי חמסה היא מן התרבות המוסלמית, ולכן החלטתי לתפוס לדעת כי היא, שאסור להשתמש בהם. האם זה נכון
He answered:
צורת החמסה אכן לקוחה מאגדה ...
4
According to Wikipedia:
The hexagram has been in use as a symbol of Judaism since the 17th
century, with precedents in the 14th to 16th centuries in Central
Europe, where the Shield of David was partly used in conjunction with
the Seal of Solomon (the hexagram) on Jewish flags. Its use probably
derives from medieval (11th to 13th century) Jewish ...
4
There is specific symbolism in the apple. It also can't be discounted that apples are harvested around Rosh Hashana time so they are a readily available and relatively inexpensive fruit at that time.
4
Revach.net has a nice table of the tribes populations, flags, symbols, and camp locations.
Levi's symbol was the Urim V'tumim (High Preist's breastplate).
3
The Beis Yosef (OC 651) writes in the name of the Rikanti (Parshas Emor Vayikra 23:40) [my own translation]:
The Esrog must be placed next to the other species. This secret was revealed to me in a dream, on the eve of the first day of Sukkos a Chosid from Germany by the name of R' Yitzchok stayed by me. I saw in a dream that he wrote the four letter name ...
3
My understanding of the Star of David is that it became iconic around the same time that Kabbalah and the Zohar began to gain acceptance as a input into Halacha. It is in the Merkavah literature and the Zohar that the 6 pointed star is given significance. The Star of David is seen as the star that connects the sephirah of Malchut to the 6 sefirot above it. ...
3
http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/561075/jewish/Purchasing-a-New-Knife-for-Rosh-Hashanah.htm
"Chatach," (חתך), which means "cut," is the name of the angel in
charge of livelihood.
Consider that the final letters of the Hebrew words, פותח את ידך, "You
open up Your hand" (Psalms 145:16), spell "chatach." Additionally, ...
3
I am not exactly sure what kind of symbol you are looking for but the one point of "transformation" in Judaism (other than a circumcision/conversion moment) is a time of communal forgiveness. As the Zohar points out (as referenced in note 9 here) about the high priest, and similarly, it is written about the scape goat here, a red thread miraculously turned ...
3
In Likutei Torah (Shir Hashirim 39B), the Baal HaTanya equates Rechovot HaNahar with Binah (emphasis mine):
ומכל הנ"ל יובן למעלה ג"כ במ"ש ונהר יוצא מעדן ומשם יפרד כו'. כי הנה עדן הוא בחי' חכמה עילאה דאצי' חכים ולא בחכמה ידיעא שהוא בחי' העלם וביטול בתכלית וכמ"ש והחכמה מאין תמצא כו' שהוא בחי' אין ממש ונק' מעין שהוא כדוגמת המעין שעדיין הוא בבחי' העלם כנ"ל ...
2
The Ramban there explains that God is saying that from now on it will be a sign that He will not destroy the world:
ולכן נפרש הכתוב, הקשת אשר נתתי בענן מיום הבריאה תהיה מן היום הזה והלאה
לאות ברית ביני וביניכם, שכל זמן שאראנה אזכיר כי ברית שלום ביני
וביניכם:
Perhaps one can explain that God causes the conditions for a rainbow to appear when He ...
2
R' Moshe Feinstein wrote in Igros Moshe (O"Ch 3:15) that:
... for hundreds of years the Paroches had Mag Davids drawn on them and no one complained. Even though we have no source of the Magen Dovid, there is no concern [to draw a Magen Dovid on a Paroches (the original question is whether it is a Zionist/Kefira symblo)]. It also reminds us that Hashem ...
2
Apple was the most widely known fruit. Think of the other fruits and vegetables that are called after the apple eg orange in Hebrew, potatoe in Hebrew, French and German, pineapple in English. See here "In Middle English and as late as 17c., it was a generic term for all fruit other than berries but including nuts (e.g. O.E. fingeræppla "dates," lit. ...
2
The Targum Yonasan on Chapter 2 of BaMidbar mentions the flags for each "super-tribe", i.e. cluster of three tribes that camped together:
(2:3) Camp Judah's flag had stripes corresponding to the member tribes' stones [on the breastplate], namely red, green, and "shiny"; it bore the names of the three tribes Judah Issachar and Zebulon, with the inscription ...
2
two chiddushim of my own that I have not seen elsewhere.
the pyre on the mizbeach is described as an apple. We are adjured not to offer up honey on the mizbeach because no man can stand it, but l’atid lavo we will be able to offer up honey on the mizbeach - so our tefillah is that the year should be sweet enough for us to do so and thus we dip the apple in ...
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