More than Colors: Israel's Flag and Our Shared Future©

Parashat BaMidbar 5785/2025

Anyone who took an American history class knows the story of the American flag, created by Betsy Ross, but what about Israel’s flag? Where did it come from, and why was it important? 

Today, I want to share that story, and why it matters for me today, more than ever before after returning from Israel, a country that is still at war for almost two years, the longest war in Israel’s history. 

I went to Israel last year and saw the Israeli flags all over the country, with banners next to them proclaiming, "B’yachad NeNatzeiach—Together, we will be victorious." 

The message was clear - united we stand, divided we fall. This was a difficult message considering what had transpired the previous year and a half - fights over judicial reform the nature of the country, and her future. Would Israel remain a Democratic and Jewish state, or just Jewish? 

But on October 7th, everyone dropped their flags, and picked up one flag. 

But as I returned, I saw something different. The Israeli flag in Israel is sacrosanct. Unlike here, no Israelis would change the colors, where the flag as a bathing suit, all the things we do in America. 

But the new flag I see is the Israeli flag, with a yellow ribbon inside the blue Star of David, representing the hostages still held in Gaza. 

An israeli friend told me people need to stop saying that Israelis suffer from PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder; a better term is TSD, because Israelis are still very much in the midst of this trauma, and so are we, after the shooting of two young diplomats in Washington DC last week. 

They were killed for embracing the star in the middle of the flag - the Blue Star of David - the symbol of the Jewish people. 

The question is, do we die for flags, or do we live for them? In this week’s parashah, we see the first flag in Bnai Israel’s history: 

Numbers 1:52

וְחָנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל אִ֧ישׁ עַֽל־מַחֲנֵ֛הוּ וְאִ֥ישׁ עַל־דִּגְל֖וֹ לְצִבְאֹתָֽם׃

The Israelites shall encamp troop by troop, each man with his division and each under his standard.

And in Numbers chapter 2, the story continues: 

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר יְהֹוָ֔ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה וְאֶֽל־אַהֲרֹ֖ן לֵאמֹֽר׃

The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

אִ֣ישׁ עַל־דִּגְל֤וֹ בְאֹתֹת֙ לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֔ם יַחֲנ֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל מִנֶּ֕גֶד סָבִ֥יב לְאֹֽהֶל־מוֹעֵ֖ד יַחֲנֽוּ׃

The Israelites shall camp each with his standard, under the banners of their ancestral house; they shall camp around the Tent of Meeting at a distance.

From the text, we have no idea what the flags look like. Were they the same flag, were they different? 

Rashi explains: Each banner shall have a different sign — a piece of colored cloth hanging on it, the color of the one not being the same as the color of another, but the color of each tribe shall be like that of his stone that is fixed in the breastplate (of. Exodus 28:21), and by this means everybody will be able to recognize his banner .

But other commentators had different ideas. Ibn Ezra claimed that each banner had the symbol of the animal associated with the tribe - more than a color, but a symbol of who they were as a group. 

In the Dead Sea scrolls, we read that each unit of three tribes, down tot he smallest unit - whether it was a thousand, hundred, fifty, or ten (a minyan) had their own unique flag.

Nevertheless, Ramban ends his commentary by quoting the Midrash, says that no matter how close each tribe was to the Mishkan, they were all honored uniquely and equally. 

We see something interesting - every flag is different, carrying the unique color of their tribe, and yet, it was a reminder to everyone - those colors and symbols exist together in one place: the breastplate of the High Priest. In God’s eyes, and the people’s eyes, you may all be different, but, you are united: unity without uniformity. 

When we think of flags in America, we cannot help but think of rallying around the flag; it’s a powerful symbol. In America, every state has a flag, but we have one flag. Israel, much smaller, has no states; they have one flag, but what I learned this week is that every tribe in Israel carries their own flag, just in different ways. 

Today, the term, B’yachad NeNatzeiach is more complicated. Before we even ask, who are we being victorious against, let’s ask, first, who is part of the together? 

The Ultra-Orthodox youth are no serving in the military, thus the burden of service is on the shoulders of Israelis aged 18 - 45. I heard reports of men my age who have spent over a year in reserves, away from their families, serving in combat as if they were fresh conscripts in the army. As the war rages, many in Israel are asking, who am I holding this flag for? My tribe alone, or others as well? 

The Israel I returned to are asking these questions, and so are we in Jewish America. If you’re a Zionist, you are asking, who amongst us is holding our flag? American Jews might wonder, maybe we shouldn’t have one flag, maybe we should have our own? 

But when we go down that rabbit hole, it doesn’t end, because like Bnai Israel in the wilderness, we can have a flag for even the smallest group of Jews. 

But the lesson of the flags is simple: no matter how diverse you may be, your flag cannot stand alone without the greater flag of your people. 

So, how did Israel make her flag? I want to share the following story found in the book, Capturing the Moon, by Rabbi Ed Feinstein:

In August 1897, Theodore Herzl led the First Zionist Congress in Basel, but a few hours before the meeting was to begin, Herzl realized that lie had forgotten something important. If the Jewish people were to have a new country all their own, they needed a flag. Every country has it flag. But what would be the design of the flag of this new Jewish country? And where in the city of Basel could he find it?

With the meeting beginning and the room filling up with important leaders, Herzl had much to do. So he turned to his friend David Wolfsohn, who would later take over after Herzl, and also came up with the name of Israel’s currency, the Shekel. Herzl asked him to find a flag for the new Jewish country. Wolfsohn ran up and down the boulevards and avenues of the city looking for something that could be used as a flag. He worried: What color should it be? What symbol should it have? And where was lie going to find it in the few minutes he had before the meeting began? 

Wolfsohn loved Herzl, and he loved Herzl's dream of it new Jewish country. He didn't want to fail in his mission or make it mistake, but he was running out of time. There was no flag to be found, and in the summertime heat he was growing very tired. He found it small synagogue on one of the streets of Basel, and he decided to stop there for it moment of rest. As Wolfsohn was sitting in the synagogue, the rabbi came by to greet him and ask if he needed help. Wolfsohn explained his mission: The meeting of the First Zionist Congress was about to begin. It was his job to find a flag to represent the new Jewish country that the Zionists would create. But what kind of flag, and where to find it? Wolfsohn had run out of ideas. The rabbi listened with sympathy. "I'm sorry," he said, "but I have no material for it flag here in the synagogue. All I have is this talit, which we wear when we pray." 

Wolfsohn's eves grew wide with wonder. Of course. What better flag for the new Jewish country, For more than eighteen hundred years, Jews had wrapped themselves in it tallit and prayed, asking God to bring them home to their ancient land as it free people. They had gathered up the four fringes of the talit and recited: 

וַהֲבִיאֵֽנוּ לְשָׁלוֹם מֵאַרְבַּע כַּנְפוֹת הָאָֽרֶץ וְתוֹלִיכֵֽנוּ קוֹמְ֒מִיּוּת לְאַרְצֵֽנוּ:

And bring us to peace from the four corners of the earth and lead us upright to our land.

Gather together In peace from the four corners of the earth, And bring its upright to our land.

What better flag for the new Jewish country? Wolfsohn asked for a talit, a white talit with two blue stripes on either end. To transform the talit into it flag, he removed the tzilziot, the holy fringes. Then Wolfsohn took out his fountain pen, and between the blue stripes he carefully chew it six-pointed star, the Magein David, the legendary shield of ling David. Wolfsohn ran back to the meeting hall. 

Just before Herzl called the First Zionist Congress to order, Wolfsohn unfurled his new flag. The dignitaries and leaders of the Jewish communities from all over the world stood and applauded the new flag. 

Fifty-one years later, in 1948, the State of Israel was established, Wolfson’s flag was declared the flag of the State of Israel.

The flag became an answer to our prayers - a diverse nation coming together as one, as if we are grabbing the four corners together, bringing them into the center, the Star of David. 

Like many of you, I have changed since October 7th. No longer am I so confident when people ask me, is everything going to ok? I got that question a lot from the rabbinical students. It was as if every question ended with an understood addendum: but, will we be ok?

I addressed the elephant in the room, and told them the story of how my daughter taught me a lesson. 

On the first Shabbat after October 7th, we held one of the most spiritually uplifting services we’ve ever had at CSK on a Friday night. 

It was very intense, and I was left speechless at the end. After dinner, Layla asked to go for a walk around the block, as we do often on Friday nights. Before we left the house, she asked me, “Abba, is Israel going to win this war?” And she paused, “Are we going to be ok?” 

I started to tear up, and looked away, but I dried my eye and looked down at her blue eyes and asked, “What do you think?” And she said, “Yes, Israel is going to win, and we are going to be ok, because God loves the Jewish people.” 

There was an Israeli flag by our door - she grabbed the flag, and we marched around the neighborhood, holding hands in silence, carrying the Israeli flag, a reminder of the diversity of our people, but the unity we have together. When will the war end? When will the hostages return? When will both Israelis and Palestinians be allowed to move on to the next phase? When will there be peace? Are we going to be ok?

My friends, I wish I had the answers: I don’t know. But I do know this: if we keep holding that flag, together, recognizing the diversity of each one of us, each group, the gifts we can bring to each other, then together, we will win. 

And, I think God loves all people; and God loves the Jewish people, in perhaps a special way. Rashi, answering the question of why we have so many census in this book of Numbers, Rashi’s answer:  “They were counted because they were dear to God; God counts them all the time--when they went out of Egypt, God counted them; when many of them fell for having worshipped the golden calf, God counted them; to ascertain how many were left, when the Shechina (divine presence) was about to dwell among them, God again counted them; for on the first day of Nisan the Tabernacle was erected, and shortly afterward, on the first day of Iyar, God counted them.”

If God counted us, we have an obligation to count each other; to make sure that each Jew is counted, and each Jew counts. As to what the future looks like though, what winning looks like, is up to us. 

Today, as in the wilderness, each of us carries our own flag—our unique stories, beliefs, and dreams. But just as the tribes once surrounded the Mishkan, we too must rally around a sacred center: our shared commitment to one another, to our people, and to the hope that God’s presence still dwells among us.

In this wilderness of fear, uncertainty, and pain, the Israeli flag—woven from the threads of our history, colored with our collective dreams—reminds us of one essential truth: unity does not demand uniformity. It calls us instead to hold our diversity close, and yet remain bound by a deeper covenant.

And though none of us can say exactly when the war will end or what tomorrow will bring, we can still choose how we journey through this wilderness. Together, flags held high—not in isolation, not in triumphalism, but in hope—we will not merely survive. Together, we will move closer to the promised future we long for, where every one of us counts.