Ffffound is a dangerous site. I try not to visit unless I’ve got a couple of hours to spare as before I know it it’s dark outside and I’ve got a couple of hundred tabs open all with amazing things in. On my last bout of browsing the site I found a couple of links to So Much Pileup, specifically these two posts, Philately Fridays: Israel 1967 and Israel 1976. I’ve traced both, but I’m just going to post the one set for now as I’m not entirely satisfied with how the 1976 ones came out. Some things just need gold ink.
The set of stamps was called “Joyous Festivals 5728”, released in that year (1967) and commemorate five festivals with illustrations of decorated Torah scrolls. Each of the stamps originally had a tab showing an illustration of an open scroll and a biblical sentence, which unfortunately I don’t have decent pictures of. There’s a tiny bit of information here, courtesy of Israel Philatelic Federation’s stamp catalogue (another strangely hard to use website). I’ve included my tracing here. The patterns are beautiful:
Original images here: Philately Fridays: Israel 1967
From left to right:
- “And this is the law which Moses set before the children of Israel” Deuteronomy IV-44
- “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy is everyone that retaineth her” Proverbs III-18
- “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” Proverbs III-17
- “Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour” Proverbs III-16
- “for his righteousness’ sake he will magnify that law, and make it honourable” Isaiah XLII-21
