AVI BINUR: MERCY GATE בָּרוּךְ הַשֵׁם
Elizabeth Barrial is the founder of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab, a cult perfume house dedicated to literature, history, pop culture, and human rights activism. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their offspring, three dogs, a gecko, and a gaggle of fish.

ELIZABETH BARRIAL: Both of my parents were born in New York City, and both of them were very, very Americanized. My grandparents, though, were immigrants from the Philippines, Belarus, and Ukraine. When I was 13, not much older than my daughter is now, I discovered Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Mickey Cohen, the Yiddishers, and the Bethnal Green Mob. My God — my people can be gangsters?

Walang ligaya sa lupa na hindi dinilig ng luha.

Filipino Proverb: There is no earthly bliss not watered by tears.

Bnei Lot are of an ancient origin. In the migratory tradition of Ruth begun more than two millennia ago, a remnant of David and Solomon migrated into Maritime Southeast Asia which comprises what is now Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, and Singapore, as well as Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia, with a sizeable minority of Malays migrating back to their tribal allotments in Sephardic Judah, besides Terrestrial and Figurative Jordan.