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Abraham, Lift up Your Eyes

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This week's Torah Portion begins and continues with a promise to Abram (later changed by G-d to Abraham) that he will have a “multitude of descendants”. In the first covenant, the promise is that they will be : “like the (grains of) sand/dust of the earth” (Genesis 13:16). And, later: “lift up your eyes to heaven and count the stars in the night sky, if you (possibly) can... thus shall be your descendants” (Genesis 15:5). In next week's Torah Portion, as well, G-d repeats this promise to Abraham (with the comparison to the stars) which is the verse which is printed on the SHOVAL (collectible tab) of the stamp shown here. Not sure why they chose a later verse in the Bible, instead of the original one. Ephraim Moses Lilian was a Jewish artist (born Drohobytch, Ukraine 1874 – died Badenweiler, Germany 1925). The Israeli Postal Service issued in 1977 Three of his paintings depicted on postage stamps. This one showing Abraham gazing at the starry night sky; By the Rivers of Babylon...
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False Unity or United for the "Wrong Cause"?

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  I was going through my First Day Covers (First Day of Issue) , and found this Someone in the official postal service in Israel must have had a very warped sense of humour, placing these 2 next to each other! There were more than 20 stamps issued that day, celebrating Israel's 30th year of independence, including Rav Kook, who wouldn't have minded "sitting next to" either of these great men! I think that this would be most appropriate next to this week's verse of "they all had one language and one idea" (Tower of Babel).  Ben-Gurion and Zabotinski spoke the same language, but they (to the best of my knowledge) did not agree on anything else...
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Did Adam and Eve brush their Teeth?

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  Shalom Y'all After a long hiatus, I am hoping with G-d's help to publish the blog weekly, corresponding to the Torah Portion of the week. So, from the beginning: We don't know much about what Adam & Eve did in the Garden of Eden However, since it does say they were naked – we can assume they weren't concerned about what their teeth looked like! Israel issued a notable postal stamp dedicated to dental health on September 16 th , 2000, which humorously depicted Adam and Eve with a toothbrush alongside the message “Look after your teeth”. If I remember correctly, the story in Shoval – the official Magazine of the Philatelic Society in Israel, explained that the person who suggested the stamp (not the design), is an Israeli dentist who is a stamp collector. He was “complaining” that almost every country in Western culture issued a stamp relating to dentistry, but Israel had not... I have no clue what the stamp from Poland is trying to show, but there is no...
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Sack, Sackcloth or Knapsack? A lesson in Hebrew and Mail Delivery

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 In 1996, a friend introduced me to a book that researched and attempted to prove that the etymological root of many words in English is from Hebrew. I don't recall most of them, but my absolute favourite was  –  Abracadabra! Which, according to the author, meant "I will create" EVRA "with my words" K'DA'BER. Occasionally, I come up with my own ideas (or maybe these words were in the book - not at all sure...) like my thought/theory that: "don't eat the meat NA (raw/fresh)" (Exodus 12:9)  –  is the source for the word 'now' in English; also the word 'nose' is from the Hebrew NEZEM (Proverbs 11:22 "nose-ring"). I believe that the Ten times the word "sack" is mentioned in the last few chapters of Genesis (42:25-44:12) is from the Hebrew language, and spelled the same way: SAK. Sackcloth is mentioned many times in the Bible, in the context of blemishes (like on cloth, wool or leather Leviticus 13:47-59), bu...
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Timbuktu - a very faraway place

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As kids, we were introduced by my maternal grandfather, who we called Sabba Sugar, to very faraway places that we will never visit. In our young mind, we thought he was making up places like Honolulu and Timbuktu! We actually named the Synagogue (little Shteebel, really; that he took us to, on those few visits to Jerusalem, before moving to Be'er Sheba) of the Sokhatchov Hassidim: "Timbuktu", as we couldn't follow or understand the prayers because of their funny accent and speed! I am not sure what the official language of Mali is, but we really weren't aware of its actual existence! And, Rabbi Google wasn't around 40+ years ago! There are quite a few times that the Bible mentions a faraway place; however, as we are in the days leading up to Tish'ah B'Av  –  the day our Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed  –  I chose two verses from Deuteronomy & Joshua. In Chapter 29 of Deuteronomy, Moses describes what will happen if the Jewish People break the ...
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Snow Day or feeling a snow-like cool breeze on a Day of Harvest June-August in the Middle East

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Today is a Snow Day in Fredericton, and a good friend from the Board of Education wished me a happy & safe one. This gave me the idea to write about a snow day in the Bible. The very first Postage Stamp that depicts snow was issued in 1931 by Newfoundland, which was not yet part of Canada, so they had their very own stamps. As far as I know, there is only One incident/instance that the Bible mentions the phrase Snow Day. To clarify, the reason I didn't say "time", is because the same exact wording appears in Two verses: II Samuel 23:20 and I Chronicles 11:22: "On this snow(y) day – Benaiah son of Jehoiada (AKA Yehoyada, as there is no letter J in Biblical Hebrew) killed a lion"! Our Sages have different explanations for: why it is significant that it was snowing that day? The simplest explanation is that it has nothing to do with the lion, but it was such a storm that it was remembered by many people for many years and maybe even decades. Any senior citizen ...
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First Press Printing in the Holy Land

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Over the past (more than) 550 years, since the printing type-set (AKA Movable Type) method was used to produce and print books, most notably the Guttenberg Bible – printing books in Hebrew was a great desire of Jewish Authors! Until 447 years ago – there was no such ability in the Holy Land. However, on the 25th of Cheshvan 1577 (Yesterday's Hebrew Date)  – a book named Koheleth Ya'akov (commentary & exposition) on the Book of Ecclesiastics, was printed in Safed (AKA TZFAT). The State of Israel decided to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of this event on a stamp in 1977. There are Two reasons I am mentioning this special event in connection to my Stamp Bible (besides the fact that it happened yesterday, 447 years ago). First: it is a commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastics, written by Rabbi Moshe ben Mordechai Galanti, who is not commemorated on any other stamp in my "Rabbi" themed collection! And, Second, the press (or the Author, we will never know) continued a...
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