The Porch

Welcome to The Porch!

I'm so glad you are here! Please let me introduce myself.

I was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel. While I lived in a newer part of the city, I spent much of my time in the Old City and the Surrounding Hillsides, exploring buildings, plants and animals, the streets, and the very land itself. As a child I took the magic of the place, for granted, and the energy that emanates from the land and the holy sites on it. Jewish magic has been all around me, though I couldn’t identify it as such, my whole life. In my early 20s, while living in California, I had the immense opportunity to live in Yosemite National Park for over a year. Here, among the majestic trees, the flowing river, the powerful waterfalls, and huge cliffs, I was awash in a new kind of magic, and energy, and as I quickly recognized it for what it was, I also came to realize the magic with which I had grown up. I came to see that magic is indeed all around us, but is different in different places. This is when I started intentionally exploring, studying, and developing my skills.

I grew up in a fiercely secular, intellectual, and logic-driven household. But when I started writing this piece, and spoke to my mother about it, after an initial balking at “superstition”, she started remembering things her grandmother did around the house, though these were not labeled magic. In fact, we had some of those things in my childhood home as well: a mezuzah for protection, and tortoises in the yard for luck. A few years ago this ultra-rational woman gave me a powerful amulet, for when I need an extra layer of protection, as she said.

But most of what I knew, and know I learned on my own, through books, writing, discussion, and practice. The learning seems more like remembering.

This magic is in my genes, my blood, my bones.