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In this brand new episode of Hebrew Voices #205, Safeguarding History Part 2, Nehemia continues his discussion with collectibles expert Leven Parker about the harsh reality of asset rich but cash poor institutions and the tear-stained letter of one of Judaism’s most famous Rabbis.

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Levin: So many people ask me, “Well, you just read letters.” And I’m like, “I don’t think you understand how much knowledge I can gain from holding the piece of paper in my hand and taking a look at the way it’s constructed, the way it’s put together.” I mean, there’s so many things that when you get… and I feel the same way about those interviews. Just having the information isn’t enough. Watching it actually happening and understanding what society was like at that point of time is something that can’t be retrieved once it’s gone.

Nehemia: Shalom and welcome to Hebrew Voices! I’m here with TikTok creator Levin Parker, who makes videos advocating and educating on collecting. And he has a focus on stamps.

This brings up a different point, which is, how do we know what happened in the past? I think the average person thinks, “Okay, I’ll look it up on Wikipedia.” But what’s Wikipedia based on? It’s based on a lot of scholarly… hopefully based on a lot of scholarly work that’s been done.

Levin: Hopefully!

Nehemia: And what’s that work based on? It’s based on all kinds of sources. We think of something like, let’s say, the American Revolution. So, we have diaries, and we have letters that people wrote.

Levin: Yeah.

Nehemia: And then, we have a history book that was written 100 years later that was based on sources maybe that aren’t around anymore.

Levin: Yep.

Nehemia: So, there’s all kinds of different sources. And some of those sources will be propaganda from the British during the Revolution that maybe are lying, and maybe it’s propaganda from the Americans who are lying.

Levin: Yes.

Nehemia: And that’s why it’s all the more important to go back and look at some of these primary sources. And we have primary sources like a letter that somebody is writing, one guy to another, and telling you, “I’m in such and such a city and the British have been here for three months.” Okay, now, maybe he’s wrong.

Levin: Yeah.

Nehemia: Maybe the British are only there for two months, but at least we can combine different sources and get kind of a picture of what was going on. And the farther you go back in history, the more difficult, of course, that is to do.

Levin: Yes. And not only that, but I think that when you get into those primary sources… A lot of history writing is about telling us what the motivations were for things to happen, and I think that’s why I like ephemera so much. Because I think if you’re going to get a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to a close personal friend, talking about why he did something, no matter what it is, it’s going to be a much more honest motivation than something he wrote in his diary. Because, what he wrote in his diary, he knew that was going to be published. He knew that he was trying to fulfill a specific narrative. Whereas when you’re writing a letter to a friend that you expect to be discarded, that’s where you’re actually chopping it out and really showing that depth. And that’s why I’m so attracted to postal history, because I think it’s the most honest way to really understand what it is people are doing, because it is the most raw and unfiltered version.

Nehemia: Yeah. So, guys, you might think, “Nehemia, why are you doing a program about collecting, and postal history, and philatelic matters?”

Levin: Yeah.

Nehemia: Because look, here’s just an application of that. We have Paul’s letter to the Galatians, or the Ephesians. So, this is something historians will talk about. Was that letter intended to be part of the New Testament? Or was Paul writing a letter to a specific community at a specific time?

There’s the passage in the New Testament where the guy says, “I forgot my coat.” Now, a lot of New Testament historians will s