OK, what’s up with those flags?

By ANDREW MCGINN
a.mcginn@beeherald.com

Perhaps the simplest way to explain the flags emblazoned with menorahs that have appeared over the Square in recent weeks is to break it down like this:

For Christians, there’s no holiday more sacred than Easter, the day of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

And, yet, a day commemorated with sunrise services, new dresses and hamballs always ends with a seven-hour showing of “The Ten Commandments” on TV.

A day that begins with boundless hope ends with Moses yelling at an orgy, “Those who will not live by the law shall die by the law!”

Roger Hoffman, whose two flags have puzzled a number of local residents since they were unfurled, is a born-again Christian of 30 years who has come to believe the Old Testament is relevant for more than just a few hours during prime-time once a year.

“I believe in the Bible. The whole Bible. Not just the New Testament,” Hoffman, 57, explained recently. “It’s one book.”

Hoffman, owner of Air-Temp Plumbing, Heating and Cooling, is flying the flags — he prefers the word banners — over the two downtown buildings he owns.

“In the Bible,” he said, “it tells us to fly his banner over our households.”

The white and baby blue banners feature a menorah — a multibranched candelabra that’s come to be associated with the Jewish holiday Hanukkah, although it first was described to Moses atop Mount Sinai.

Emblazoned above the menorah is something called the tetragrammaton — the four Hebrew letters, YHWH, that stand for the name of God, Yahweh.

“I’m just reading our English Bible following what it says to do,” Hoffman said. “I’m just a meager little dude trying to read this.”

Contrary to the talk of town, he’s not Jewish.

Hoffman has, however, been to Israel three times, and plans to return this fall.

If anything, he identifies with a growing movement known as Hebrew Roots, a sort of back-to-roots sect of Christianity in which the Old Testament plays a prominent role.

Hebrews are the ancestors of Jews.

Hoffman said he believes “every word” of the Bible, and that means honoring the Old Testament wherever it says “forever.”

Nick Sorensen, the city of Jefferson’s building inspector and code enforcement officer, said he’s been asked multiple times by curious residents about the flags and what they mean.

“We don’t really have zoning restrictions against flags,” Sorensen said. “Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing.”

Hoffman admits that not every tenet of the Old Testament is able to be carried out these days.

“There’s one in there that says if your child is rebellious, take him out and stone him,” he said. “I haven’t done that one.”

But he said he’s doing his best to follow the Ten Commandments.

He cites the commandment, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”

“If I’m your neighbor,” Hoffman reasoned, “you’re going to appreciate that.”