JERUSALEM (JTA) — A new set of Israeli stamps shows the first Torah that was flown in space.
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The commemorative stamps also feature Jeffrey Hoffman, the astronaut who first brought the Torah into space in 1985, Space.com reported Monday. He was the first Jewish-American man to enter space.
The Israeli post office produced only 200 sheets of the stamps. Sheets are being sold online for $100 to $360. The proceeds will go toward the production of a film about Hoffman bringing the Torah into space.
“It kind of blows me away, to be honest. I’ve never been on a stamp before,” Hoffman, now a professor in aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Space.com.
Hoffman brought a number of ritual items with him on that 1985 mission, including a mezuzah with a Velcro strip that he would attach to his bunk and a prayer shawl with weights to keep it from floating away in zero gravity.
He also brought a menorah to celebrate Hanukkah, although he was never able to actually light it aboard the spacecraft.
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