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...

 This coming Sabbath, the Jewish People read the Torah Portion of Sh'lach (Numbers 13:1–15:41). The opening topic, which continues well into the  14 th  chapter of Numbers, deals with the story of the 12 men, who Moses sent to tour the Land of Canaan. He asked them to see the land which was promised to our Forefathers: Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, and report back to him. When they came back, they were carrying a cluster of grapes that was so big, that they needed Two (at least) strong, grown men, to hold it on a staff. The State of Israel chose this image to represent the Ministry of Tourism on a stamp from 1954, and it hasn't changed since! The description in the SHOVAL (tab below the stamp) is one of two ways that the men praised the land. First, they said that it is "a land which flows with milk & honey" (Numbers 14:8; first mentioned in Exodus 3:8; and, there are 13! other times this phrase is found in the Torah). The group of 10 (of 12) men actually said this ...

The traditional custom of most Jewish communities around the world is to read the Book of Ruth on the Festival of Weeks (AKA Sha'vu'ot, Pentecost & Holiday of the First Fruit). There are several reasons for this, but one of the main reasons, which I grew up with, is that Ruth was the Great-Grandmother of David, and, since he was born (and died) on this Holy Day – we honour him by reading about his ancestry – as Ruth was the first woman to convert to Judaism (as far as we know) and accept the Torah Law. In addition, this is the day that our ancestors received the Law at Mount Sinai, and this is the reading (Exodus 20:1-14) from the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) that is the traditional reading by all Jewish Congregations (as far as I know)! When I was growing up, I had very limited sources to get stamps from collectors in countries other than Israel (where I lived) & Canada (where I was born). The reason I am mentioning this, is that even though I now have access to st...

 In Numbers Chapter 15 (verses 37-41) G-d spoke to Moses telling him to instruct the Children of Israel (AKA the Jewish People) to tie strings at the corners of a Four-corner Garment (like the Roman Toga or the Prayer Shawl known as a Tallit).  Normally, the Law (Word of G-d or Torah) does not tell us what the reason is for a Commandment, however, in this law of the fringes – the Torah says that the purpose of the commandment is "that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord..." (Numbers 15:39). How does looking at these strings supposed to remind us of the other statutes & laws of the Law?! Many years ago, I was told about South American Native Tribes who used to send (secret) messages through strings that were knotted in a certain way, and could only be decoded by an elder where the message was received. You can read more about this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu As a teenager, I was fascinated by secret languages & codes, ...

 I know it's been Two weeks since we celebrated Purim, but I was searching through my Iranian stamps for some stamps my new friend in Florida wanted, and came across this beautiful stamp of a Sassanian Courier (that's what the Catalogue says). I suspect that this is somewhat related to the Capital of King Xeroxes' which was called Shushan in the Hebrew Scripture of the Book of Esther. It was issued in 1970 to celebrate the 2,500 Anniversary of the Persian Empire, which is actually pretty accurate, corresponding to what we now know as the miracle of Purim. According to the Book of Esther, there were Three times that the official scribes were called to write letters in all 127 languages of the people who lived in the different countries & provinces of the Persian Empire. The first was concerning the decree that every man should be the "man of the house", which sounds absolutely ridiculous to me, and many of our Sages have made different comments & suggestion...

 So, it's been a while since I posted last. I discovered, through my specific interest of Maps on Stamps, that Syria has more maps of Israel depicted on their stamps, than any other country in the world, including Israel !!! So, a friend from the UAE sent me stamps from Syria from 2019 & 2023, showing the Map of Israel, and in addition, what a surprise!, was a stamp that celebrates UNESCO International Year of Indigenous Languages. Syria decided that their language will be Aramaic, since there are small groups/communities who still speak Aramaic as their daily language. Even I, and thousands of others who study the Daf Yomi (a blot of Talmud a day)  – can't speak Aramaic as a colloquial language!!! As far as I know, Syria is the only country that has a stamp showing the Aramaic language. In a very tense time for the people in Judea, Ravshake (or Rabshakeh), acting as a messenger (or emissary) from the King of Aram, the original country where Aramaic was founded as a l...

 When I was Nine Months old, there was a plane crash en-route from Uruguay to Chile, later to be known as the  Andes flight disaster  ( Tragedia de los Andes ) and the  Miracle of the Andes  ( Milagro de los Andes ). Since I was so young at the time, how did I learn about it? Well, you might say: "from his stamp collection"; unfortunately, this is not the correct answer... When I was studying the Kosher Dietary Laws, as part of my training to become a Rabbi, one of our Rabbis asked the following (horrible & terrifying) question: "if you were on a plane that crashed, and in order to survive you had to choose between the non-Kosher food in the flight's kitchen, or the dead people - which do you choose"?! The reason for this question is that even though there is a "prime directive" (as I call it) to live in the Commandments; you must choose (if possible) the lesser prohibition. For example, if you have a choice between pork and a chicken that was kill...

My newest addition to the Stamp Bible is a FDC from Israel showing a scene from the Opera Nabucco by Verdi that was finally decoded for me by one of my best friends! Nabucco is, apparently, the Italian pronunciation of Nebuchadnezzar Israel issued this stamp commemorating Verdi’s 200 th birthday, and it depicts Abigail on a chariot pulled by a beautiful white horse! The other addition is a stamp issued by Iran showing a wall-mosaic of a Persian Archer from the era of Cyrus the Great.

 One of my friends sent me a stamp from UAR (United Arab Republic) - a unity of Syria and Egypt that was established in the late '50s. The stamp depicted an onion, and that reminded me of a verse in the Book of Numbers that says that the Hebrews "complained... we remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt... the onions and the garlic" (Numbers 11:1-5 ESV). So, I love collecting stamps, and I love studying the Bible - why can't I combine those Two loves into One?! So, I got my self an Interleaved Bible Journal Edition, and I am going to create my own Bible depicting stamps that are related (sometimes indirectly) to the verses on each page! I know that it will never be complete - there are over 17,000 stamps showing horses, and not that many mentions in the Scripture, but I want you, the readers, to suggest matches between stamps and verses.  What I have so far is a few stamps from Egypt with those verses in mind, a stamp from Barbados (1987) showing the Ten Command...