Parashat Mishpatim: Divine Blue

 

© https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-israel-can-trace-its-flags-roots-to-boston-1891/

Dr Alice Skelton is a Lecturer of Developmental Psychology at Sussex University whose PhD culminated as a result of her research on Infant Colour Perception (according to her CV posted at  https://aeskelton.wixsite.com/my-site/resume).  Her Paper characterised ‘colour perception and cognition in the first year of life’.

In a fascinating piece on the BBC’s website (https://www.bbc.co.uk/tiny-happy-people/how-toddlers-learn-colours/zmrg8p3), she provides a timeline of how babies view colours and punctures the myth that at birth, they are only able to see the world through a monochrome filter.

She writes, “If at birth you show a baby a very bright red and white light, they’ll look for longer at the red light than the white.  So, we know they can tell those two colours apart.”

·         After a week, “on average, they can see very intense red or green colours,”

·         two months – “bluish colours and be able to tell red and green colours apart,”

·         three months – “yellowish colours and differentiate between yellow and blue,”

·         six months the colour an object should be, for example, “that a strawberry is red,”

·         after a year, “more washed-out colours, not just the bright ones.”

She is underscoring something that we already know.

From the moment we leave the womb and as soon as our eyes start to focus, they are drawn to colour.  This fascination stays with us throughout our lives.  Who cannot be awestruck by the sight of a stunning red and orange sky at dusk or a turquoise blue ocean lapping against a sandy beach populated by palm trees?  The majesty of a ruby, emerald or sapphire ring?

We all have our favourite colours.

Some like green, others pink, blue, yellow, purple and wear outfits that demonstrate their love of a particular shade of said colour.  If I asked you to name your favourite one, I don’t think it would take you too long to respond.

Is there a single colour that defines our nation and if this is the case, which one is it and why?

You might answer that it’s white.  After all, it adorns our weekly Shabbat tables and features predominantly in our Synagogues over the High Holy Days.  When we reach the end of our lives, we are dressed in a white shroud before burial.

For many of our co-religionists, their colour of choice is black.  That’s fine too.  But returning to my original question.  Are either of these colours representative of Judaism?  Mishpatim suggests an answer that you may find surprising.

Towards the end of the Parasha, Gd instructed Moshe, Aharon and his two eldest sons, Nadav and Avihu, along with seventy elders, to ascend Sinai.  There they saw ‘a vision of the Gd of Israel and beneath his feet was the likeness of sapphire (or Lapis Lazuli according to Rabbi Sacks and others) brickwork/pavement as clear as the sky itself.’ (Shemot 24.10)

The prophet Yechezkel, in his first vision, describes the Merkava (Chariot) that we read about in the Haftarah on the first day of Shavuot, the anniversary of the giving of the Torah.

He saw the winged beings and above them was a  ‘a film with the appearance of a sapphire which took the form of a throne, upon which was the form with the appearance of a man from whom there emanated fire which resembled a rainbow…it was the form of the Glory of the Lord.’

From these two descriptions, we note that Gd’s throne and its environs are the colour of sapphire.

Our Rabbis passed down the mesorah/tradition that both sets of the luchot/tablets were formed from sapphire.  The Tosafot Yom Tov commenting on Pirkei Avot 5.6 writes that the first set which were given by Gd originated from heaven (and the Midrash Plia suggests that these were taken from the area of His throne) and the second (agreeing with Rashi) who writes (commenting on Shemot 34.1) that when Gd commanded Moshe to hew the second set of tablets which would be “like the first…which you broke”, He showed him a sapphire quarry which was situated below his tent.

Is this dual use of blue a mere coincidence?

The Torah is replete with examples of the significance of this colour which is given the name ‘Tekhelet’ and is mentioned 49 times in The Tanach.

Aharon, the first Kohen Gadol/High Priest wears a turquoise robe which includes woven pomegranates in the same colour along with the ribbons that fit through slits in his turban to keep it in place.

Tekhelet features predominantly in the Mishkan’s/Tabernacles coverings and, of course, we read about the thread of blue (Ptil Tekhelet) that to this day is included in the strings of our Tzitzit (although I don’t ascribe to the modern tradition of wearing such a pair).  The Menorah, Altar and service vessels were covered with blue cloths (topped with animal skins).

We read about the mitzvah of wearing Tzitzit twice a day as part of the Shema prayer.  It is known as one of the Edot – the category of mitzvot whose purpose is to act as ‘testimony’ to Gd, in the same way that Shabbat testifies that Gd created the world in six days and rested on the seventh.  The Ptil-Tekhelet is meant to remind us of the sky.  When we look at our Tzitiziyot, they remind us of Gd in heaven, especially if they include a blue-coloured string.

The skill in being able to locate the origin of the dye that produced the Tekhelet colour was lost over 1000 years ago and there is a view that the reason why we use blue stripes on a tallit is to replicate the original blue string in a pair of Tzitzit.

Skipping to our present era, the origins of the Israeli flag date back to 1891 when a Lithuanian-born Rabbi by the name of Jacob Baruch Askowith, living in Boston, Massachusetts, designed a flag with his son which he called ‘The Flag of Judah’.  This was for a local Jewish organisation known as the Bnei’ Tzion Education Society.  It was displayed in their hall at a meeting on 20^th July.

His design had two blue stripes on a white background encasing a Star of David with ‘Macabee’ in Hebrew letters at its centre.  He based the blue stripes on the design of a traditional Tallit and this was presented by Isaac Harris of Boston in 1897 to the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.  After numerous changes, it was officially adopted as the Flag of the State of Israel in the ‘Flag and Emblem Law’ dated 28^th October 1948 equating with 25^th Tishri 5709.

This unbroken connection between our people and the colour blue has taken us on a journey from Sinai to the present era.  It is our colour.

A few days ago, one of my students told me about a software program that allows the user to explore space and learn about the universe.  You can ‘travel’ to planets and galaxies both in our solar system and beyond.  The graphics are extraordinary.

Whilst playing around with it, I was suddenly struck by the colour of our own planet.  It is as though Gd designed it to mirror His own Kingdom.  As we read in Bereshit – Gd created us in His image and by extension, the earth that we inhabit shares the same colour as the throne he ‘sits’ upon.

Could it be that Gd deliberately did this to remind us of His domain, so that by looking at the sky in our world, we can have an idea of His realm?  These are questions that are impossible to answer (or maybe we find out when we pass away).

One colour, on a thin string in numerous iterations connects our present, with our past and no doubt, our future.  From Mount Sinai in 2448 to the flags flying both in Israel and around the world in 5784.

I have one last question to pose.  Since forever, I have had a favourite colour.

Can you guess what it is?

Shavuah Tov.