בס״ד

The Only Jewish preschool in Tarrant County (disclosure: I am on the Board)

Tribal Flags

Ask each child to decorate his or her graham cracker to look like a flag of one of the tribes! If making on Shabbat, avoid Zvulun as illustrated (maybe you will come up with your own ideas!

According to Midrash Raba, the design of each flag was based on Jacob/ Ya’acov/ Israel’s blessings to his children before his death, as he saw their characters, in Bereishit / Genesis, beginning at 49:2. Accordingly, the decorations for the flags, and their colors, were:

TribeSymbolBackground
Reuven: Mandrake flowers (white or lavender with five long petals and yellow centers)red
Shimon: Buildings of the city of Shchemgreen background
Levi: Jeweled breastplatered, white and black
Judah/Yehuda: LionSky blue
Issachar: Sun and moonBluish-black
Zevulun: ShipWhite
Dan: SnakeSapphire Blue
Naftali: DeerDeep wine
Gad: SoldiersBlack and white
Asher: Olive treePearlescent
Ephraim: Bull Black
Menashe:Ox Black
Binyamin:  WolfMulticolored

So far I have made the following:

Reuven

Shimon:

Levi:

Judah/Yehuda:

Zevulun: