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A -- The mountains (Sanhedrin 91a). David Wolfson, Herzl's aide, is usually given
credit for the Jewish flag's design. In an article
B -- The land of Zevulan (Megilah 6a). penned in 1911, pertaining to the Second Zion-
ist Congress, he said: "Suddenly I got a brain-
C -- Lake Kinneret (Zohar-Exodus 48a -- Lev storm! We already had a flag -- the blue and
150a). white of the talis! We had only to unfurl it be-
fore the eyes of the Jewish people and the
D -- The City of Luz (Sotah 46b). world at large. Accordingly, I ordered a blue
and white flag, with the Shield of David in its
E -- The Phoenician border (Shabat 26a). center. And when it finally waved over the
hall...no one raised a question or expressed
According to Exodus 39:2, 8, and 22 we find surprise. It seemed perfectly natural!"
that the priestly garments were blue and white,
like the blue thread among the white tzitzis. The Talis is present at all of the major occa-
sions of a Jew's life: circumcision, bar mitz-
The Talis itself should be white and blue (Ber- vah, wedding and burial. Talasim are worn by
achot 9b); and the blue or black stripes in the all of the bris milah participants.
present-day Talis remind us of the command-
ments or tichales (Peri Migdanim chap. 9). The canopy of the Talis unites all who stand
under it. On Simchas Torah, the children of the
congregation are called to the Torah together.
The Radziner Rebbi, Rabbi Gershon Chanoch
Leiner, reintroduced the use of Techales in The Talis is spread over them, uniting all in re-
tzitzit. Although opposed and questioned by ligious experience.
many scholars of his time -- it is still practiced
today by many of his followers and others. For most males, a Talis is worn initially when
he celebrates his bar mitzvah. The Talmud
says, however, that a child of less than thirteen
The striking similarity between the striped
prayer shawl of the Jew -- the Talis -- and the should wear a Talis if he knows how to wrap
striped banner of the Jewish people -- the flag himself in one (Succah 42a).
of Israel -- is not accidental. Three people, in
separate locations and without contact, de- When moving the Torah scroll, the Talis acts
signed similar flags: each said the Talis in- as a protector.
spired him.
Customs using the Talis as a chupa vary. In
Rabbi Jacob Askowith, of Boston, Mass., dis- certain communities, it is canopied over the
played a banner almost exactly like the Israeli heads of the bride and groom. Other communi-
flag on July 24, 1891. In his letters, he wrote ties wrap the bride and groom in one Talis.
that the Talis serves as the basis for his design. Some communities spread the Talis over the
heads of the entire wedding party.

According to Jacob de Haas' book, Theodore
Herzl, Isadore S. Donn, a Russian Jewish art- In some congregations, only married men wear
Talasim. The object is that bachelors be recog-
ist living in London, made a Jewish banner in nized, become embarrassed, and will hasten to
1893. Donn said "...the colors were based on marry (Divrai Koheles 47).
biblical authority, and the stripes from the
talis."
Another explanation for this is the proximity of
the law of tzitzis to that of marriage (Maharil).

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