My Stamp Bible

 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...

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 ...