Edom Means 'Red' - The Color Associated With Eisav

24 Kislev 5785 

In ancient Greece and the Minoan civilization of ancient Crete, red was widely used in murals and in the polychrome decoration of temples and palaces. The Greeks began using red lead as a pigment.

Romans wore togas with red stripes on holidays, and the bride at a wedding wore a red shawl, called a flammeum.   Red was used to color statues and the skin of gladiators.  Red was also the color associated with army; Roman soldiers wore red tunics, and officers wore a cloak called a paludamentum which, depending upon the quality of the dye, could be crimson, scarlet or purple.  In Roman mythology red is associated with the god of war, Mars.  The vexilloid of the Roman Empire had a red background with the letters SPQR in gold.  A Roman general receiving a triumph had his entire body painted red in honor of his achievement.

The Romans liked bright colors, and many Roman villas were decorated with vivid red murals.  The pigment used for many of the murals was called vermilion, and it came from the mineral cinnabar, a common ore of mercury.  It was one of the finest reds of ancient times – the paintings have retained their brightness for more than twenty centuries.  The source of cinnabar for the Romans was a group of mines near Almadén, southwest of Madrid, in Spain.  Working in the mines was extremely dangerous, since mercury is highly toxic; the miners were slaves or prisoners, and being sent to the cinnabar mines was a virtual death sentence.

. . . After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, red was adopted as a color of majesty and authority by the Byzantine Empire, the princes of Europe, and the Roman Catholic Church. It also played an important part in the rituals of the Catholic Church, symbolizing the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs.

Red was the color of the banner of the Byzantine emperors. In Western Europe, Emperor Charlemagne painted his palace red as a very visible symbol of his authority, and wore red shoes at his coronation.  Kings, princes and, beginning in 1295, Roman Catholic cardinals began to wear red colored habitus. 

When Abbe Suger rebuilt Saint Denis Basilica outside Paris in the early 12th century, he added stained glass windows colored blue cobalt glass and red glass tinted with copper. Together they flooded the basilica with a mystical light. Soon stained glass windows were being added to cathedrals all across France, England and Germany. In medieval painting red was used to attract attention to the most important figures; both Christ and the Virgin Mary were commonly painted wearing red mantles.

. . . In Renaissance painting, red was used to draw the attention of the viewer; it was often used as the color of the cloak or costume of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or another central figure.

. . . During the French Revolution, the Jacobins and other more radical parties adopted the red flag; it was taken from red flags hoisted by the French government to declare a state of siege or emergency. Many of them wore a red Phrygian cap, or liberty cap, modeled after the caps worn by freed slaves in Ancient Rome. During the height of the Reign of Terror, Women wearing red caps gathered around the guillotine to celebrate each execution. They were called the "Furies of the guillotine". The guillotines used during the Reign of Terror in 1792 and 1793 were painted red, or made of red wood. During the Reign of Terror a statue of a woman titled liberty, painted red, was placed in the square in front of the guillotine.

. . . In the mid-19th century, red became the color of a new political and social movement, socialism. It became the most common banner of the worker's movement, of the French Revolution of 1848, of the Paris Commune in 1870, and of socialist parties across Europe.

. . . In the 20th century, red was the color of Revolution; it was the color of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and of the Chinese Communist Revolution, and later of the Cultural Revolution. Red was the color of communist parties from Eastern Europe to Cuba to Vietnam.  (The History of Red)

In case you thought Haifa was only known as "Red Haifa" because of its politics, it's also the most Eisavian city . . . 

XMAS IN HAIFA 

. . . the city’s greatest Jewish virtue [?] is its secular pluralistic spirit. Haifa is a city that will not succumb to any religious coercion, least of all Jewish. Decades ago, when public transportation on the Sabbath and holidays was banned throughout the country, our fiercely socialist mayor insisted on maintaining it, not only to respect the rights of the city’s non-Jews, but also to enable residents without private cars to go to the beach or visit relatives on Sabbath. Haifa’s secular transportation policy remains a symbol of its socialist, egalitarian values—the city has long been nicknamed “Red Haifa”—which endure in the face of Israel’s strong rightward tendencies, both religious and political.  (Source)

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May the Spirit of the Maccabees be rekindled along with the Hanukkah lights!!