There's an image I once read in the Zohar, fairly near the beginning. Something with stones, something with the first thing, the foundation, the most ancient. Avnei Bohu. Bohu Stones. I imagined stones smooth like the ones on the seashore, elongated, smooth, but enormous, lying scattered. There are gaps between them. Through the gaps you see the primordial ocean, the waters of the deep, and in them the Leviathan swims. The water below is black. It feels like before the defini

This rare photograph shows my beloved Uncle Mitya (Mattityahu) Abramov. Sadly, in the picture you can see only Uncle Mitya's hand, feeding an unidentified kitten, and behind him a smiling man whom I no longer recognize. It is the only photograph of Uncle Mitya cleared for publication. In 1983, armed KGB forces raided our old neighborhood, where Jewish, Muslim, Armenian, and Russian families lived, all of them barely scraping by. During the search of Uncle Mitya's basement apa