Star of David

About the Star of David

The Star of David is known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David (Hebrew îÈâÅï ãÈÌåÄã or îâï ãåã

The Shield of David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.

History of the Shield of David (from Wikipedia)

The Star of David in the oldest surviving complete copy of the Masoretic text, the Leningrad Codex, dated 1008. The Menorah on the Arch of Titus: notice the three stems on each side plus the central stem, totaling seven. Likewise the Shield of David came to be understood as seven, with two triangles of three points each united around a central point.

By modern times, the Shield of David hexagram has become a widely recognized symbol to represent the Jewish people. However the origins of this use are complex with obscure developments emerging since medieval times. Star of David pendant

Star of David necklace

Regarding the Jewish use of the hexagram symbol, early Jewish literature does not mention it.

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. A Siddur dated 1512 from Prague displays a large hexagram on the cover with the phrase, “…

The precise origin of the use of the hexagram as a Jewish symbol remains unknown, but it apparently emerged in the context of medieval Jewish protective amulets (segulot).

In the Renaissance Period, 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.

With its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel adopted the Shield of David for the Flag of Israel.