5784/2024
The second Perek in this week's Parashah, Parashat BeMidbar, opens with the Degalim. Each tribe's flag had its own unique symbol. It is said in Midrashim that even the Angels were jealous of the flags and wanted a flag of their own. So what was so special about these flags and what is their relevance today?
I believe that the Degalim represent the unique nature of each tribe and their specific duties. Yehuda was destined to lead, Levi would work in the Beit HaMikdash, Zevulun provided for Talmidei Chachamim. All of these duties were all anticipated by Yaakov Avinu when he blessed the Shevatim before he died. This idea still applies today. We all wave around our own “flag”, our task in life that no one else can do, however, it's important to remind ourselves that even though we all have our own different flags we are all united under one flag, the Israeli flag.
When people would ask the Rav, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, what his stance was on the Israeli flag he would answer ‘‘I do not hold at all with the magical attraction of a flag or similar symbolic ceremonies. Judaism negates ritual connected with physical things’’. However, he would go on to quote a law in Shulchan Aruch saying “One who has been killed by non-Jews is buried in his clothes, so that the blood may be seen and avenged. In other words, the clothes of the Jew acquire a certain sanctity when spattered with the blood of a martyr. How much more is this so of the blue and white flag, which has been immersed in the blood of thousands of young Jews who fell in the War of Independence defending the country and the population?” (‘The Rav Speaks,’ 5743, p. 139). The Israeli flag is imbued with a sanctity that is derived from the devotion and self-sacrifice of everyone in Israel.
In these times it is important for us not to wave just our own flag and the flag of our Shevatim, but rather to be unified under one flag. To march in the Israeli day parade under one cause for one reason. To look around and appreciate the sacrifices that people make for us so we can wave our flag.