Jewish symbolism

Jewish symbolism embraces to a wide range of symbols related to Judaism and Jewish culture.

Menorah

 * The terms used for this metal are either ba'aẓ or avaẓ, kassitera, kassiteron, and gassiteron (Gr. κασσίτερος). Both ba'aẓ and kassitera are used in the same passages (Men. 28b and elsewhere), which implies that they were two different metals or kinds of the same metal. The Temple menorah was not to be made of them, but when the Hasmoneans cleansed the Temple and needed a new menorah (the golden one having been carried off by Antiochus IV), they made it of seven spears plated with tin. It was forbidden to make weights out of metal – tin and lead being mentioned specially – because metal wears away. The traveler Pethahiah of Regensburg (12th century) reports that in Babylonia people were summoned to synagogue by a tin instrument. In the later Middle Ages up to modern times tin was used extensively for artistic ritual objects such as Ḥanukkah menorot, seder, Kiddush, and Havdalah plates, etc.
 * "Metals And Mining", Encyclopaedia Judaica


 * Just as Hanukkah candles are lighted one by one from a single flame, so the tale of the miracle is passed from one man to another, from one house to another, and to the whole House of Israel throughout the generations.
 * Judah L. Magnes in: Always Look on the Bright Side: Celebrating Each Day to the Fullest, Cleis Press, 22 October 2013, p. 93.

Four species

 * The four species are all plants that need an abundance of water, and at the end of Sukkot, prayers for rain will be said.
 * Arye Forta: Judaism, p. 55

Shofar

 * The preferred Shofar of Redemption is the Divine call that awakens and inspires the people with holy motivations, through faith in God and the unique mission of the people of Israel. This elevated awakening corresponds to the ram's horn, a horn that recalls Abraham's supreme love of God and dedication in Akeidat Yitzchak, the Binding of Isaac.
 * Abraham Isaac Kook: 1933 Sermon: "The Call of the Great Shofar"

Star of David

 * According to one theory, the six-pointed "shield of David" which adorns the modern Israeli flag, started to become a national symbol with David al-Roy's crusade. "Ever since," writes Baron, "it has been suggested, the six-cornered 'shield of David', theretofore mainly a decorative motif or a magical emblem, began its career toward becoming the chief national-religious symbol of Judaism. Long used interchangeably with the pentagram or the 'Seal of Solomon', it was attributed to David in mystic and ethical German writings from the thirteenth century on, and appeared on the Jewish flag in Prague in 1527."
 * Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, page 137, Random House publishing (first American edition), 1976

Shin



 * It is a common custom to write [God's name,] Shaddai, on the outside of a mezuzah opposite the empty space left between the two passages.
 * Maimonides: Mishneh Torah, Sefer Ahavah, "Tefillin, Mezuzah and the Torah Scroll" 5:4

Tetragrammaton



 * When a man pronounces the Tetragrammaton, write the Cabalists, the nine heavens are shaken, and all the spirits cry out to each other: "Who thus disturbs the kingdom of heaven?" And then the earth reveals to the first heaven the sins of the foolhardy person who took the eternal one's name in vain, and the accusing Verb is transmitted from circle to circle, from star to star, and from hierarchy to hierarchy.
 * Eliphas Lévi: The Doctrine and Ritual of High Magic (1856)

Tablets of Stone



 * The children of Israel received without idealisation the statements of their great lawgiver. To them the tables of the law were true tablets of stone, prepared, engraved, broken, and re-engraved; while the graving tool which thus inscribed the law was held undoubtingly to be the finger of God.
 * John Tyndall: New Fragments (1892)

Tree of Life

 * In brief, the Tree of Life is a compendium of science, psychology, philosophy and theology.
 * Dion Fortune: The Mystical Qabalah


 * The object of the theoretical (as separate from the practical) Qabalah, insofar as this thesis is concerned, is to enable the student to do three main things: First, to analyze every idea in terms of the Tree of Life. Second, to trace a necessary connection and relation between every and any class of ideas by referring them to this standard of comparison. Third, to translate any unknown system of symbolism into terms of any known one by its means.
 * Israel Regardie: A Garden of Pomegranates

Chai

 * Hearing that the woman will bear children, the only good news in God's grim prophecy of the dismal human future (sorrow, sweat, toil, and death), he grasps at this straw of hope, renaming the woman Eve (Chavah), because she is the mother of all living (chai). From Adam's hopefulness, Eve gets the first genuinely proper name in the Bible.
 * Leon R. Kass: Leading a Worthy Life: Finding Meaning in Modern Times, referencing Genesis 3:20

Flags



 * Terms such as Jewish flag, flag of Judaism and flag of the Jews are often used as synonyms for the flag of Israel (also known as the Zionist flag prior to the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948), but at times have referred to other designs meant to refer in whole or part to Jews as an ethnicity or religion.

Quotes about flags and Judaism

 * The light blue Star of David lies in a sea of white, between a single light blue stripe on top, another on the bottom. This elegant design is the Flag of the State of Israel.
 * "How Israel Got Its Flag and What It Means, Haaretz'', Elon Gilad, May 11, 2016.


 * ...in 1648, .. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II gave the Jews of Prague permission to fly a “Jewish flag” over their synagogue, in recognition of their part in saving the city from the Swedish invaders, who besieged the city as part of the 30 Years War. This "Jewish flag” was red with a yellow Star of David at its center.
 * "How Israel Got Its Flag and What It Means, Haaretz'', Elon Gilad, May 11, 2016.


 * Everyone recognizes the blue stripes and Magen David of the State of Israel's flag. Likewise, the LGBTQ Jewish flag – a Magen David centered on the rainbow flag – is commonplace and self-explanatory.
 * Nicholas Castillo, "Jewish Flags You Probably Didn't Know Existed", Hey Alma (March 22, 2021)