My Stamp Bible

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 ...

This coming Sabbath, we will read in the Torah (Deuteronomy 29:23) a very harsh description of what will happen in the Promised Land, if the Jewish People do not keep the Covenant they made/signed with G-d in the Plains of Moab (AKA the Trans-Jordan, or, the East Bank of the Jordan River). Moses tells them that the "whole land will be (or, " is " in this translation which I don't understand) brimstone, salt and burning... like the overthrow of Sodom & Gomorrah..." Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld mentioned in our Yeshivah's Rashi class that a modern-day example of such an event is what took place 38 years ago (April 26 th , 1986) in Chernobyl (then USSR, now in the Ukraine), when there was a leak/explosion in nuclear reactor #4. Until now, according to experts, nothing that grows in the Exclusion Zone (10-20 Miles Radius) is safe for human consumption! You all know that my first love (in collecting) was for stamps from Israel, and I have about 75% of the approxim...

This coming Sabbath, we will read what most people refer to as "the curses" (Deuteronomy 28:15-69). As far as I understand, these were not as much for the individual, as they were for the Jewish Nation as a whole! As we were exiled and consequently spread all across the world, it was difficult for our people to understand if this could happen in any of the countries they ended up in, and many of our Rabbis & Sages have interpreted the Torah to conclude that the curses of Leviticus (26:14-43) became the reality during the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (circa 550 BCE); and the curses in Deuteronomy came true during the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE). As a person who served in the IDF, I was always fascinated by the different symbols army units use for their Insignia, even as a teenager, and I discovered that the Roman forces in Jerusalem had an eagle on their banners, flags and other forms of the insignia. Nazi Germany issued these stamps in January...

 It is very important, in my humble opinion, to recognize and appreciate the people & organizations who "have our back"! Acknowledging these people is something the Jewish People have been doing, ever since the times of our Forefather Abraham. When he was commanded to circumcise himself and the men in his household, the Midrash (Genesis Rabbah 42:8) teaches us, based on the words "the members of the Covenant (or "allies") of Abraham" (Genesis 14:13) – that they advised him to follow through with it and to circumcise. Even though they, themselves, were uncircumcised – they supported him in this extremely difficult decision! So, the stamp and the verse that I am showing here – was issued by the State of Israel in 2022 to acknowledge "Christians who stand for Israel". At the bottom of the stamp, called a SHOVAL in Hebrew, and a "collectible tab" in English, the quote is from G-d's very first (scriptural) conversation with Abraham: ...