[Avodah] national flag???

[Lisa Liel]

On 10/6/2011 6:30 AM, Zev Sero wrote:
> On 5/10/2011 10:14 PM, Lisa Liel wrote:
>> As I understand it, the word "nes" means pretty much what a flag is.
>
> It's probably something that serves the same purpose for which flags were
> invented, but it can't mean a flag, unless they're a technology that was
> lost and rediscovered.   Chazal seem to have thought it meant a standard,
> which was an invention known in their day, but perhaps not in David's; I
> don't know.

I'm not sure why you're so convinced that flags didn't exist at the 
time.  I mean, I've heard arguments that say Pharaoh couldn't have had 
horses and chariots because they hadn't been invented yet.  That camels 
hadn't been domesticated at the time of Avraham Avinu.  But those are 
only generalizations.  There could have been some domestication of 
camels that wasn't widespread.  And there could have been flags that 
weren't a common thing either.  How do you prove a negative, after all?

Lisa