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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
PURELY COMMENTARY
Continued from Page 2
he dedicated to the Temple. The rabbis (Babylo-
nian Talmud,' Menahot 98b) intimated that the
menorah of Moses stood in the middle of the Tem-
ple with five lampstands to the right and five
lampstands to the left of it. Yet the Bible gives no
warrant for such a conclusion.
That the menorah was not a fiction is borne
out by its prominent depiction on the Arch of
Titus in Rome; it was clearly one of the spoils of .
the sacked and burned Jerusalem Temple in 70
C.E. It is also described earlier in the Book of
Maccabees (I Maccabees 1:21). The menorah proj-
ected back onto the book of Exodus was in all
likelihood the menorah which had stood in the
Second Jerusalem Temple and which the Romans
took as booty to Rome.
Especially noteworthy is Dr. Gutmann's explanatory
description of the emergence of the Magen David as a cos-
mic Jewish symbol. That portion of his study explains:
As late as the 19th Century, Rabbi Isaac
Elhanan Spektor, of Kovno, Lithuania, warned
the local Reform congregation to remove the
Magen David ("Shield of David") which graced the
roof of their house of worship. Spektor's attitude
seems strange today when the Magen David serves
most Jewish houses of worship — traditionalist as
well as liberal — as a symbol of Judaism.
Already in the
late 18th Century in
Western Europe the
Magen David was
coming into popular
use, perhaps as a
meaningful new sign •
which could express
or symbolize
Judaism. It appears
at that time on
Jewish ceremonial objects, on synagogue build-
ings and seals.
The 20th Century has seen the use of the sym-
bol reinforced by two major factors. (1) In 1897, at
Basel, Switzerland, the Magen David was offi-
cially adopted as the symbol of the new movement
established to promote political Zionism (since
1948, the Magen David has been on the official flag
of Israel). (2) In the 1930s and '40s the Nazis forced
all Jews in their lands to wear a badge of shame —
the yellow Magen David with the word Jude (Jew)
emblazoned on it.
These two experiences of 20th Century Jews
have made what had long been a neutral sign into
one of the holiest symbols of Judaism, simultane-
ously embodying pride in the reborn State of Is-
rael and a recollection of the Holocaust.
The Magen David is a hexagram or six-
; pointed star. It appears as early as the Bronze Age
and is at home in cultures and civilizations widely
removed in time and geographic area.
Mesopotamia, India, Greece, and Etruria are
among the places where it has been found — but
without any discoverable meaning. Possibly it
was an ornament or had magical connotations.
Only occasionally before the 1890s is it found
in a Jewish context; the oldest Jewish example is
from Seventh Century B.C.E. Sidon, a seal belong-
ing to one Joshua ben Asayahu. In the synagogue
at Capernauni, Galilee, a synagogue which may
date from the Fourth Century C.E., the Magen
David is found alongside the pentagram and the
swastika, but there is no reason to assume that the
Magen David or the other signs on the synagogue
stone frieze served any but decorative purposes.
In the Middle Ages, the Magen David appears
quite frequently in the decorations of European
and Islamic Hebrew manuscripts and even on
some synagogues, but appears to have no distinct
Jewish symbolic connotation; it is also found on
.the seals of the Christian kings of Navarre, on
medieval church objects, and on cathedrals. As a
matter of fact, what is today called Magen David
was generally known as the Seal of Solomon.
The appended 'art works, Prof. Landsberger's be-
queathed treasures, the Torah scrolls and other evidences
of ancient synagogue art, add invaluably to this impor-
tantly researched work.
Dr. Gutmann has enriched the literature about the
Jewish house of study as well as the ancient citadels in the
thoroughly "researched The Jewish Sanctuary: Iconography
' . ,oftReligiort, published it ,g11*)Notlietlund$ ibm.j.
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