Beit Malkhut opened its doors in San Francisco in 1995, coincidentally around the corner from Reb Zalman and Shlomo Carlebach’s original House of Love and Prayer. It was begun by Drs. Mira Z. Amiras and Ovid Jacob. Mira is an anthropologist and professor of Middle East Studies and Comparative Religious Studies. Ovid is a particle physicist. The focus of the group is the study of Jewish sacred text — going beyond text to context — including ancient cross-cultural influences, as well as historical, anthropological, and scientific contributions to the understanding of sacred text.
When classes are offered to the public, Beit Malkhut meets once a week for a six to eight week session on a given topic. When public classes are not being offered, Beit Malkhut Study Group meets once a month for ongoing participants. Beit Malkhut studies in Jewish mysticism, magic, and folklore have been ongoing for over 25 years.
Meetings and topics are posted on our website, along with synopses of salient topics. If you are interested in studying with us on a regular basis here at Beit Malkhut, please contact us through this site for more information.
Coming soon to this page: An introduction to the Beit Malkhut approach to the study of text, and a listing of some of the topics we’ve spend months, and sometimes years, considering.