By Yehuda Amichai: I say with perfect faith that prayers preceded God. Prayers created God, God created people And people create prayers that create God who creates People.

Today is the birthday of the world, symbolically at least, for us Jews. I spent much of the day in synagogue, singing, smiling, marveling at the faces I’ve known for more than 25 years now, growing up, growing gray. Sacred stuff (friendship, gratitude, sympathy, recognition) happens everywhere in/near/around the temple on a day like today:…

I’m off to New York tomorrow, for the official start of the book tour for Day After Night, my new novel. I’ll be in Manhattan, Long Island, and Atlanta this week. Check my website (www.anitadiamant.com) to see where and when. In fact, the “tour” began last week, with a reading at my wonderful local bookstore,…

The crickets are loud at nightDo they protest the coming of the winter, their deaths, the end?Do they celebrate the limpid blue skies, the crunchy grasses?Of course not I hate to close the windows and lose the shrill, happy musicBut it’s chillySummer’s back is broken despite the odd hot eveningand sticky afternoon School starts, the…