The design and concept of Darth Vader is partially based on Jewish myths and traditions. Many of Star Wars fans are already aware of the 3 lines of Hebrew letters that appear on the character's "Chest Plate", but here I'll provide more details on the "Jewish origin" of the infamous Dark Lord!
Here you can see a close-up of the lines on Vader's breastplate from Return of the Jedi. The first & third lines are problematic and not easy to understand.
אב מצש
גלמציצ
עד שלכה
(Hebrew is written from right to left)
The first line has 5 letters in two words.. apparently meaningless unless, with a bit of stretching it, we read it as (Father - Saturday) (AB - M Ts Sh)
The third may be read as "till his cast down" (AD - Sh L K H)
{שלכ sh-l-k = ‘cast off, throw down, cause to go’}
The second line is the interesting one.. Written upside down.. It's more like a "label" than a part of a sentence, and the letters are: (G L M Ts I Ts).
2 words, Golem & Tsits. (Hebrew avoids writing vowels, hence why GLM is pronounced Golem)
The word Golem appeared only once in the Old Testament, but is a big subject in Jewish folklore and myths. Some people believe that "special" Rabbis have the ability to "create life", as a crude imitation of God's power.
The created creature typically is from mud.. The ritual of creation is difficult and magical. The result is a mindless servant, its mission is to serve & protect the Jewish people, especially his Rabbi master.
Hebrew letters were written on him to give him life, then by removing one of them he was deactivated.
The Golem (soulless animated body) was a very popular myth in the Jewish community of Prague (Czech republic), and the Jewish town there has a big black statue of it.
The golem - in some versions of the story - became too dangerous, like a Frankenstein Monster, so the Rabbi had to de-activate it, especially when the creature turned against its master and became difficult to control.
The creature was usually deactivated during the rest day (Saturday)
The "activation letters" were written on the creature's forehead or on a paper that was put inside its mouth.
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The second Hebrew word is Tsits (tzytz), which is the name of the golden plate on the turban\head of the Jewish High Priest, as part of his official (very specific) garments.
See Exodus 39:30
The word on Vader's breastplate may be a "homage" to the letters on the forehead of the Golem.
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The Breastplate on Darth Vader's suit may be a "control panel" similar to the golem's activation letters!
And that brings us to the design of the Chest-plate itself, with its iconic red & blue buttons that look very similar to the design of the High Priest's Breastplate!
See Exodus 39:8-21
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George Lucas may have been mainly inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune novel, but the Jewish influence can't be denied either.
Here is the Golem statue in Prague, the Jewish town of Josefov.
{The association of this Prague statue with the legend of the golem is a recent one, and wasn't the intention of the original artist!
Artist Ladislav Saloun designed 2 statues there, one resembles the Rabbi Loew of Prague, and the other to represent the legend of the ghost of Iron knight.. But Loew is famous for "making" a golem according to Jewish myth, so people assumed that the knight statue is the Golem! The obsecurity of the legend of the Iron Knight helped the confusion.
More information can be found here:
http://teleport-city.com/2014/03/31/i-am-iron-man }
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The young Jedi padawan has hair braids that reminds me of the Jewish tradition of "payot".
-----
Some people speculate that the word JEDI was inspired by the word Jewish\Yeddish, and Yoda came from "Yehuda" (The Hebrew pronunciation of the name of the son of Jacob who Judaism was named after) etc. , but I prefer the Ancient Egyptian origin of the word, i.e (The Djed sacred pillar of Osiris) that the pharaoh was required to "raise" in a special festival.. It reminds me of raising the body of Anakin Skywalker on the table of Palpatine at the end of the new trilogy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestly_breastplate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
http://ffoz.org/blogs/2008/07/hebrew_darth_vader.html
http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=365
http://io9.com/5895340/is-darth-vaders-armor-proof-that-hes-secretly-jewish
http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/sithprophecy.htm
Darth Vader's Jewish Origin , by Salama
אב מצש
גלמציצ
עד שלכה
(Hebrew is written from right to left)
The first line has 5 letters in two words.. apparently meaningless unless, with a bit of stretching it, we read it as (Father - Saturday) (AB - M Ts Sh)
The third may be read as "till his cast down" (AD - Sh L K H)
{שלכ sh-l-k = ‘cast off, throw down, cause to go’}
The second line is the interesting one.. Written upside down.. It's more like a "label" than a part of a sentence, and the letters are: (G L M Ts I Ts).
2 words, Golem & Tsits. (Hebrew avoids writing vowels, hence why GLM is pronounced Golem)
The word Golem appeared only once in the Old Testament, but is a big subject in Jewish folklore and myths. Some people believe that "special" Rabbis have the ability to "create life", as a crude imitation of God's power.
The created creature typically is from mud.. The ritual of creation is difficult and magical. The result is a mindless servant, its mission is to serve & protect the Jewish people, especially his Rabbi master.
Hebrew letters were written on him to give him life, then by removing one of them he was deactivated.
The Golem (soulless animated body) was a very popular myth in the Jewish community of Prague (Czech republic), and the Jewish town there has a big black statue of it.
The golem - in some versions of the story - became too dangerous, like a Frankenstein Monster, so the Rabbi had to de-activate it, especially when the creature turned against its master and became difficult to control.
The creature was usually deactivated during the rest day (Saturday)
The "activation letters" were written on the creature's forehead or on a paper that was put inside its mouth.
-----
The second Hebrew word is Tsits (tzytz), which is the name of the golden plate on the turban\head of the Jewish High Priest, as part of his official (very specific) garments.
See Exodus 39:30
The word on Vader's breastplate may be a "homage" to the letters on the forehead of the Golem.
-----
The Breastplate on Darth Vader's suit may be a "control panel" similar to the golem's activation letters!
And that brings us to the design of the Chest-plate itself, with its iconic red & blue buttons that look very similar to the design of the High Priest's Breastplate!
See Exodus 39:8-21
-----
George Lucas may have been mainly inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune novel, but the Jewish influence can't be denied either.
Here is the Golem statue in Prague, the Jewish town of Josefov.
{The association of this Prague statue with the legend of the golem is a recent one, and wasn't the intention of the original artist!
Artist Ladislav Saloun designed 2 statues there, one resembles the Rabbi Loew of Prague, and the other to represent the legend of the ghost of Iron knight.. But Loew is famous for "making" a golem according to Jewish myth, so people assumed that the knight statue is the Golem! The obsecurity of the legend of the Iron Knight helped the confusion.
More information can be found here:
http://teleport-city.com/2014/03/31/i-am-iron-man }
-----
The young Jedi padawan has hair braids that reminds me of the Jewish tradition of "payot".
-----
Some people speculate that the word JEDI was inspired by the word Jewish\Yeddish, and Yoda came from "Yehuda" (The Hebrew pronunciation of the name of the son of Jacob who Judaism was named after) etc. , but I prefer the Ancient Egyptian origin of the word, i.e (The Djed sacred pillar of Osiris) that the pharaoh was required to "raise" in a special festival.. It reminds me of raising the body of Anakin Skywalker on the table of Palpatine at the end of the new trilogy!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzitz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestly_breastplate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golem
http://ffoz.org/blogs/2008/07/hebrew_darth_vader.html
http://www.jewornotjew.com/profile.jsp?ID=365
http://io9.com/5895340/is-darth-vaders-armor-proof-that-hes-secretly-jewish
http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/sithprophecy.htm
Darth Vader's Jewish Origin , by Salama
