Thought I’d better get this in before it isn’t April any more. I think next year, the whole month of April’s posts should be in poetry. I’d be pretty proud if I could manage it. This poem I stumbled on searching through my replacement computer after the crash of my favorite but unreliable old one,…
Author: mira
Mira Z. Amiras is Professor of Comparative Religious Studies and founder of the Middle East Studies Program at San Jose State University. She is past-president of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness, and has served on the Executive Council of the American Anthropological Association. She is co-founder, with Ovid Jacob, of Beit Malkhut, a study group in Jewish sacred text. She's most attached to the creatures of her body and her household — first and foremost, her kids, of course: Michael and Rayna — and then the other folks large and small of various species, including Roshi and Vlad, a whole lot of hummingbirds, the old parrot who lives next door, and a beautiful garden that does what it will.
the bookstore
So. The bookstore the other day — One of Malkah’s favorite things to do on planet Earth was to go with the tzaddik on his frequent forays into the dark and gloomy bowels of used bookstores. Holmes Books, in San Francisco, was one of their favorites together. The tzaddik would give Malkah a whole…
a kaddish for farzad bazoft, and also saddam hussein
I never met Saddam Hussein. But I wanted to. We were guests, actually, of Tariq Aziz — who was Foreign Minister at the time. Little known fact: they both share a birthday (one year apart): April 28th. It was my birthday. And we had just been detained. Pulled from the Baghdad airport just as we…
the inheritance
First they told me I was inheriting the biofather’s art supplies and his own paintings. Biofather was a Chinese painter. Then they found a new copy of the will, and next to my name was one word, in his handwriting — with an arrow to be clear: OMIT is what it said. And I thought,…
anyone who is hungry, let them come and eat
The tzaddik grew up in the Bronx, across from Yankee Stadium. That must say a lot about him, but I’m not sure what exactly. His family lived in a shvitzy little apartment, overcrowded with uncles and cousins and such. That was in addition to mamma, poppa, the tzaddik and his two younger brothers. Of course,…
the very best sephardi charoset ever, hashisha candy, and the religion of labor
I mean, it’s not really chauvinistic to admit when something is without question and beyond doubt just the very best, right? This is something that can be tested empirically. Blind taste test, right? Well, actually not. There’s the nostalgia factor. People are attached to family traditions, especially with regard to foods, and they become…
bondage, sephardi style
I have heard this bit every single Pesach of my life when my mother has been present. And when she wasn’t, I’ve taken it upon myself to tell it myself (albeit a short short version). All my stories are the short short version, in case you haven’t noticed. Mrs Tzaddik is much better on detail….
next lifetime: on the origins of religious experience
I don’t believe any of this stuff, right? So how come I can see it all so clearly? Maybe I’ve just got no imagination at all. I can see the house vividly. Every detail, from ceilings to secret balconies and sunbathing decks. The place needs a major paint job. You’d think my next lifetime would…
a kiddish for our kaddish — and then al-fatihah —
It’s time to raise our glass and say a Kiddish for our Kaddish in Two-Part Harmony. I sit here in utter amazement that our whimsical little project is chugging along not just functioning but doing what it’s supposed to be doing. When we started this project, I must admit I was a bit of a…