The 1987 South Africa Bible Society Stamp with Sheim Hashem

An unusual halachic issue arose in South Africa in the field of philately.

Here are examples of how this issue has been reported in the media:

“The 40c stamp was originally supplied to various Post Offices in the Republic before the date of issue. Despite the Post Offices being instructed to withdraw the stamp, well over 1500 copies as well as a few control blocks and some first day covers were sold by smaller post Offices over the counter. The remainder of these stamps are believed to have been officially destroyed in Pretoria.”

STAMP at ARCO 2003 The stamp was displayed by Siemon Allen “The Word of G-d” Issued on November 19th, 1987 this South African stamp, titled “The Word of G-d” was one of four commemorating the Bible Society of South Africa. The stamp shows the name of G-d in Hebrew and in Greek on a blue background. Originally these stamps were supplied to various post offices in the Republic before the date of issue, but they were subsequently withdrawn in response to objections from the Jewish Community for whom the use of God’s name on a commercial product was considered blasphemous. Despite the Post Offices being instructed to withdraw the stamp, well over 1,500 copies were sold by smaller Post Offices over the counter. The remainder of these stamps are believed to have been officially destroyed in Pretoria. The stamp is extremely rare and despite…..highly collectible.

(“Madrid hosts Europe's largest annual contemporary art exhibition, famously known as ARCO. ARCO, which stands for Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo (International Contemporary Art Fair), is a unique cultural event which showcases over one hundred exhibitions from across the globe”) (note : this is not the original image. It has been doctored.)

Interestingly an article appeared in 1997 by Xavier Piat, a philatelist. He mentioned the following: “SA’s rarity is the 1987 ‘The Bible’ 40c stamp depicting in Hebrew the name of G-d. With the understanding that a post mark should not cancel the Word of G-d, the stamp was withdrawn. Somehow about 12 stamps appeared on the market, priced upwards of R5000”. [He was wrong on two counts – firstly, this was not the main reason for the problem with the stamp, although it is fascinating that this was the perception of some of the community of stamp collectors. Secondly, considerably more of them had reached the public]. In November 1996, an article had appeared in the (South African) Sunday Times “Under the Hammer’’ section, by Alan Duggan. He said “the Name of G-d stamps were issued in 1987 and immediately recalled by the Post Office after the Jewish community protested that the stamps defied Judaic law.” In more detail he stated: “No one intended to cause offense and certainly no disrespect was meant when 1.2 million rather unusual 40c stamps were printed and distributed to post offices all over South Africa nine years ago. But the Jewish community were outraged when they discovered that the stamps – part of a special issue devoted to the Bible – bore the name of G-d in Hebrew and Greek. Jewish leaders pointed out that this was a serious transgression of Judaic law, which says G- d’s name may appear only in the Torah and prayer books. It was not permissible for G-d’s name to be torn, cancelled or otherwise defaced during normal mail handling process, they said. Moving quickly, the Post Office recalled the 40c Name of G-d stamps from the far-flung corners of South Africa and prepared to destroy them in the interests of religious harmony – only to be informed that this was equally unacceptable to the Jewish community. Instead, officials were told, the stamps should be buried. But the Post office reckoned the matter had gone far enough, and the stamps were duly destroyed. Most of them, anyeway. According to Ken Joseph…..at least 1275 of tese rare stamps slipped through the net. They are still out there and have since become quite valuable to ccollectors….. Ken well remembers the philatelic frenzy of 1987, ….Having decided to issue a set of four stamps commemorating the importance of the Bible in South Africa’s history, the Post Office’s philately department issued a brochure giving details of the issue. They duly went ahead and printed a 16c stamp with the theme of Biblical translations, a 30c stamp featuring a Rambrandt work called Beshazzar’s Feast, a 50c stamp reproducing another Rembrandt painting….. and a 40c stamp bearing the phrase ‘The Name of G-d’ in Hebrew and Greek. Alarmed by the protests, the Post office instructed its postmasters not to issue the stamps on November 19 1987 – the official release date. However, a couple of small post offices were running short of 40c stamps and opened their parcels before the official release date… It was later found that 51 sheets of 25 stamps each had been sold or otherwise appropriated. All of them are valuable – in fact they are the most valuable stamps of South Africa’s Republican period. Of course, it is also an interesting item of Judaica. ……………………………… The above descriptions of the whole episode are really fascinating in themselves. They all fail to mention that the biggest problem in Halacha (Jewish Law) and sensitivity is that the Hebrew Name of G-d should not be disgraced in any way – the most serious of which would be by being discarded in the garbage, as most letters are after being read. The press of course also dramatized the issue by saying things like “the Jewish community were outraged” – it was all done in a very polite way, with the Beth Din making representations to the Post Office officials. Many non-Jewish South Africans have a great respect for the Bible and indeed this episode no-doubt led to a heightened level of respect for Torah concepts and traditions – in particular for the respect with which one has to refer to Hashem and write His Name in the Holy Tongue.