We explain what the star of David is and what its function was in ancient times. Also, how it became the symbol of Judaism.
The Star of David is a symbol typically associated with Jewish culture and religion.What is the star of David?
The Star of David (or hexagram) is a very ancient symbol, consisting of two equilateral triangles superimposed to form a six-pointed star. It is a symbol typically associated with the Jewish culture and religion, but which can also be found in representations of other religions (Christianity, buddhism, Islam) and even in secular contexts, that is, non-religious.
The history of this symbol goes back to the Antiquity, when it was used with a decorative sense, not necessarily religious, in buildings, manuscripts or works of art, since the number six was considered since ancient times as a "perfect" number. It is not unusual to find it next to the five-pointed star (pentagram) or even the swastika, as part of the decoration in Asian and Fertile Crescent cultures. Later it was even used in Christian cathedrals in Europe.
However, its link with Judaism is also ancient, because according to biblical texts, the Jewish king David (famous for his fight with the giant Goliath) had a sacred shield with this symbol, capable of protecting him from spears and demons, and That is why it was known as the “star of David” (Hebrew: mogen david, "shield of David").
It was also known in Jewish tradition as "the Seal of Solomon", since it is said that this Hebrew king, a descendant of David himself, used it as an emblem of the ring with which he sealed his letters.The divine character of the symbol would come from the fact that both triangles evoke the pact between God and Abraham, as one points towards the sky and the other towards the earth.
It is probable that the idea of the hexagram was born there as a magical symbol of protection, a meaning that it would have for centuries, and that seems to confirm the fact that this emblem has been found in Jewish tombs and synagogues from the 3rd century BC. C. in the ancient Roman province of Galilee.
The Star of David as a symbol of Judaism
In the medieval In Europe, the Star of David came to formally designate the Jewish religion. This is because, in the face of prevailing Christianity, the Jewish populations of the diaspora required a symbol to identify their places of worship.
Although this symbol is not mentioned in the Hebrew religious texts, it was chosen by the followers of the Hebrew Kabbalah to identify their study and prayer spaces, and it appears in the oldest existing copies of the Tanakh, such as the Leningrad Code (approx. X century), or in the famous Eshkol Ha-Kofer (12th century), a philosophical treatise on the ten Commandments.
Thus, over time, the Star of David became the emblem of many Jewish communities, with Prague being the first to openly and officially adopt it in the 17th century. Already in the 19th century it was fully identified with the Jewish religion and was the official symbol of the Zionist movement, which was fighting for the creation of a new Jewish state.
In fact, it was used as identification by the Jewish Legion, a military body that fought alongside the British during the First World War (1914-1918), to expel the Ottomans from the region of Palestine. In that same place in 1948, when the modern State of Israel was established, the Star of David was chosen in a public contest to identify the national flag.
A sadly known aspect of the relationship between the Jewish people and the Star of David is the one that took place during the Second World War (1939-1945) in the territories occupied by the German National Socialist regime.
Initially in Poland in 1939, but later in the rest of Europe conquered by the Nazis, it was established through racial segregationist laws that Jewish populations were required to wear an identifying emblem sewn to their clothing, that is, a yellow Star of David with the word jude ("Jewish") in pseudo-Hebrew characters.