The Flag of Humanity |
“If they ask me derisively, what is this flag? … a flag is something symbolic and national and with a flag one leads people anywhere one wants, even to the Promised Land. People live and die for a flag…”
These were the words of Theodor Herzl in a letter to Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1895, explaining why a flag would be so significant to his dream of a future Zionist state. It was not simply cloth on a stick. It was a symbolic embodiment of the values and hopes of a nation.
Flags have a special place in Jewish history. In this week’s parashah, the Jews prepare to travel through the desert. God tells Moshe that they are not to travel in a haphazard fashion but rather with a structured formation. Each person will camp with their tribe. The tribes will be joined in groups of three, forming four super-camps, each led by one tribe. Each of these four camps had a flag:
God spoke to Moshe and Aharon, saying: Each person from the Children of Israel shall camp by his flag, by the signs of their patriarchal house; surrounding the Tent of Meeting shall they camp. (Bamidbar 2:1-2)
There are various midrashic accounts that detail what the flags looked like. The common theme is that each bore the colours of the three tribes of that camp. Ibn Ezra (ibid) quotes the tradition that the flag of the camp of Yehuda featured a lion. The Camp of Ephraim’s flag carried an ox while the Camp of Dan had an eagle. Fascinatingly, on the flag of the camp of Reuven was a picture of a person. This he claims, was a reference to the dudaim (a human-shaped plant) that centuries earlier Reuven had gifted his mother (details to follow).
The symbolism here is mostly........