Hey there and welcome back to Take One, the podcast that brings you just one historical page of Tomlid each day.

And as today's DAF, Menachot 38, launches into a new chapter

of our track date, the rabbis kick things off by discussing the colors of the Tzit on our talus. Have a listen.

The absence of the sky blue, Tchelet strings do not prevent fulfillment of the mitzvah of ritual fringes with the white strings,

and the absence of white strings does not prevent fulfillment of the mitzvah with the sky blue strings.

If one has only one, he wears it without the other.

When you wear your talus cotton, say the ritual fringes or your talus itself, the Mishna suggests white strings

and sky blue strings are both fine. There are many fascinating discussions to be had from this Mishna,

including one about this color, Tchelet, sky blue, which was produced from a chilazon,

a species of snail. But there's an even more fascinating

and impactful bit of history here. When the earliest Zionists first got together in the late

1890s, one question they debated ad infinitum was, what should their flag look like? Herzl, Zionism's founding father, had no doubt. It should be

a white flag with seven golden stars. Why? Let's let the man himself explain, as he did in his book.

The white background, he wrote, would symbolize the purity of our new life and the seven

golden stars, the seven hours of work each day. Herzl's idea then was universalist,

emphasizing a mercifully short workday as the new Jewish state's greatest imaginable virtue.

His Zionist pals, however, had other ideas,

and we should be glad that they did. Dr. Rabbi Zohr Haftig, one of the original signatories of Israel's Declaration of Independence, explained, we managed to assert as our national flag

the Zionist flag of Tchelet and white,

like the colors of the talus, he wrote.

We yearned for some thread, however symbolic, to tie our future and our past together.

And do not dismiss the significance of symbols.

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