Blue and white are the colors of the week as we celebrate the 73rd anniversary of the birth of Israel. They are also the colors embedded in this week’s double Torah portion -Tazria-Metzorah.
Not the prettiest section of our sacred text, this selection of Leviticus describes the treatment of all varieties of skin ailments, mold, and other transmittable diseases. Hence the white, or Lavan, the sign the priests would look for to determine if a person was fit to return to the Israelite camp. White meant the illness had not left the person’s body and the person would have to remain in isolation.
Blue, on the other hand, is harder to find. It is not directly in the book of Leviticus at all. It is, however, embedded in every action the priests would have taken in the Mishkan or Tabernacle. Tekhelet, a special pigment from a now lost Mediterranean snail, was celebrated as the color of royalty. It was featured in the clothing of the High Priest as well as being embedded in the fabric of the Tabernacle itself. This is the blue that is alluded to in the color of our Talitot, or prayer shawls, as well as the Israeli flag.
By combining blue and white in the Israeli flag, we are pairing illness with health, sadness with joy. Yom Haatzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, comes one day after Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day in Israel, one of the saddest days in Israel, side by side with one of its happiest. Thus, the Biblical understanding of blue and white fits perfectly into our modern conception, as tears and hope exist side by side. Blue and white are colors that go together like chocolate and peanut butter, the perfect compliments in our topsy turvy world.
Chag Yom Ha’atzmaut Sameach and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex
p.s. – I am including with this a poem I wrote back in the summer of 2001 about the contrast between the Israeli and American flags.
The Israeli Flag has no Red Stripes
The Israeli flag has no red stripes –
just blue,
big, Biblical blue
and holy white.
The Israeli flag has no red stripes –
red is the color of blood exposed,
blood that spilled
in ancient fights.
The Israeli flag has no red stripes –
blue is the color of blood contained,
blood inside
kept out of light.
The Israeli flag has no red stripes –
red is reserved for battle fields,
no red to spare
to make things right.
The Israeli flag has no red stripes,
it’s only colors blue and white.