Page 7 - HaMizrachi #9 Yom HaAtzmaut 5779

Rabbi Reuven Taragin Rabbanit Shani Taragin

The Blue, White

AND BEAUTIFUL LAND

ive months after the years and will bear [the consequences – “My beloved is like a gazelle or a young
establishment of the State of of] your straying” (14:33), we also find hart; behold, he stands behind our wall,
F Israel, we adopted the flag of parallels in the garment itself. he looks in through the windows, he
Israel we know today. A blue Magen peers (metzitz) through the lattice” (Shir
David on a white background, between The garment upon which the tzitzit are HaShirim 2:9), with the word metzitz
two horizontal blue stripes symbolizing placed remind us of the garments torn by obviously hinting at tzizit.
the stripes on a tallit and the blue Calev and Yehoshua upon hearing Bnei
dye, the ת ֶ ל ֵ כ ְּ ת, of the tzitzit. We are Yisrael’s pleas to return to Egypt. The The idea of blue and white being our
commanded to look at these tzitzit tzitzit remind us not to want to return national colors was voiced by Ludwig
“and remember all the commandments to Egypt. We should stay focused on August von Frankl (1810–1894), an
of the L-rd, and do them” (Bamidbar our national destiny of living in Eretz Austrian Jewish poet, in his poem,
15:39). Chazal explain that the ת ֶ ל ֵ כ ְּ ת Yisrael! “Judah’s Colors”:
corresponds to the color of the Divine That is why the term ף ָנ ָּ כ (lit. corner),
Revelation (Sifri, Bamidbar, 115) and generally a word connoting geographical He puts on, when prayer fills him,
deters us from sin. direction, is used (Bamidbar 15:38 The colors of his country.
and Devarim 22:12). It reminds us of
The context of the mitzvah of tzitzit There stands he, wrapped in prayer,
reveals added significance to the colors, the four directions the spies took in In a sparkling robe of white...
and hence the Israeli flag. The mitzvah the Land of Israel. A thread of ת ֶ ל ֵ כ ְּ ת
appears with other mitzvot connected among the white threads at each of these These are the colors of the beloved
to the Land of Israel, after the Sin of the corners reminds us of the colors of the country:
Spies, who dissuaded the nation from Land of Israel, particularly those of Blue and white are Judah’s borders;
entering the Land (Bamidbar 15:37- Nachalat Yehuda, in which Moshe had
41). Ibn Ezra (ibid. 15:2) explains commanded the spies to tour (Bamidbar White is the priestly radiance,
13:17). These are the colors with which
this juxtaposition as indicative of Ya’akov blesses Yehuda and his land: And blue, the shining of the firmament.
consolation and assurance for the people “His eyes shall be ‘red’ with wine, and
that they will indeed enter the Land. The tzitzit and our flag remind us
And the tzitzit in particular will remind his teeth white with milk. (Bereishit not to rebel nor lose sight of G-d’s
49:11-12).
them not to rebel against G-d. commandments, particularly not to
The Ramban explains that the eyes lose sight of the beauty of Eretz Yisrael.
How do the tzitzit remind us not to will not be red, but rather colored blue The tzitzit remind us of the majesty and
rebel? In addition to several expressions (ל ֹוח ַָּ כ) with the oxidized wine that grows love relationship with G-d in the Land
in the parasha of tzitzit that hint at the in the mountains of Yehuda, as the teeth of Israel and console us after years of
spies’ sin – e.g. “to explore (רּות ָ ל) the will be whitened by the milk of the flock
land… “You shall not explore after (אלֹ in the deserts of Yehuda. wandering. And the Israeli flag waves
י ֵ ר ֲ ח ַ א ּורּות ָ ת) your hearts”… “You shall in the Land of Yehuda as a constant
see the Land” (13:18)… “You shall Blue and white are the colors of the reminder not only not to explore
see it…” (15:39)… “You shall not borders of the Land promised to the elsewhere – ּורּות ָ ת אלֹ, but that there is
explore after your hearts nor after your Jewish people. They are also the colors nowhere else to explore.
eyes”(15:39)… “We were in our eyes of the topography of the Land as
like grasshoppers, and so we were in depicted in Shir HaShirim: The re’aya Rabbanit Shani Taragin is Educational
their eyes” (13:33)… “Our brethren is waiting for her beloved in the hills of Director of World Mizrachi and Religious
melted our hearts” (Devarim 1:28)… Yerushalayim (indigenous to the blue Zionists of America-Mizrachi and the
“after which you stray” (15:39)… “Your wine) while the dod hails from the desert Director of the Mizrachi Matan Lapidot
children will wander in the desert for 40 of Ein Gedi, with his flock and milk Educators’ Program shani@mizrachi.org

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