Reviews for The Women Who Danced by the Sea:

Washington Post September 30, 2004, Bill Broadway

"Do psychotherapy and biblical narrative go hand in hand? Psychologist Marsh Mirkin says they do and weaves accounts of modern patients' troubles with the stories of Eve, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam and other foremothers. The stroy of Sarah, for example, give hope to women who have trouble getting pregnant (Sarah had Issac at 90) but also shows the tragic results of Sarah's vindictive behavior towards Hagar, her servant and the mother of Abraham's son Ishmael..."

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Aquarius Magazine Atlanta

"The Women Who Danced by the Sea: This Year's Must-Read Guide to Self-Actualization"

A woman I know, a dear childhood friend, is undergoing a major transition in her life. Two years ago, she discovered that the husband she had been married to for over two decades – and loved dearly, believing him to be her soul-mate – was in fact leading a double-life. This man she knew as the father of her three children had two other, much-younger children only one state away and another woman with whom he shared his life. Moreover, the office he claimed to leave home for every morning was a sham – he had no office, no job, no professional life. His 'office' was this other woman's home and his 'salary' was the allowance this other, independently-wealthy woman provided him with to finance his double life.

My friend's rude discovery went beyond the conventional betrayal we associate with the uncovering of a spouse's affair. While that is deeply and metaphysically shattering, this revelation uncovered her husband's true identity, thereby undoing the root of her very being, dislocating her moorings, and making her feel as if she didn't know herself.

Wisely, my friend began intensive therapy, and her circle of friends and loved ones buoyed her through. When we met to mark the first year anniversary of her independence from her house-of-mirrors-like marriage, I could think of no better gift to bring her than the newly-published book by Brandeis psychologist Marsha Mirkin, The Women Who Danced by the Sea; Finding Ourselves in the Stories of our Biblical Foremothers (Monkfish/October 2004/$16.95).

The Women Who Danced by the Sea brilliantly merges modern feminist biblical narrative and psychotherapy. It is indispensable reading for anyone who is in search of spiritual meaning and guidance in an increasingly unstable and dangerous world.

Following in the tradition of other popular works that have focused on feminist biblical themes such as best-selling work, The Red Tent, similar in spirit to Bill Moyer's Genesis series on PBS, Mirkin's book is the first book of its kind to view the lives of the biblical women through the lens of contemporary psychological theories.

Readable and revealing, The Women Who Danced by the Sea is also the first book to weave together original feminist psychological interpretations of the stories with stories of contemporary women and men. Through these stories, Dr. Mirkin explores a wide range of psychological and spiritual issues such as depression, eating disorders, infertility, sibling rivalry, and the problems of favoritism.

For instance, in her retelling of the story of Eve, Mirkin presents us with the prototype of the life choices that always confront us: do we engage in life fully and experience both the richness of joy and the depths of sorrow, or do we settle for a less complicated, less meaningful existence? In the story of Sarah, she examines the powerful role of empathy and the consequences of empathic lapses to our relationships. In the story of Hannah, she explores issues related to the importance of girls having a voice and not being silenced.

In her new book, Mirkin uncovers a new face of midrash – the interpersonal. The beauty of the work is that each and every reader is able to forge an intimate encounter with the biblical characters that Mirkin so skillfully brings to life. In the case of my friend, she was able to see herself, variously, as Eve, Hagar, and Hannah. Empowered by the book's modus vivendi, she envisioned herself on a journey from the Egypt of her sham relationship with her husband, undergoing a personal Exodus, and wandering through the desert of personal discovering on the way to her own promised land of self-discovery.

The Woman Who Danced by the Sea is vital reading for anyone interested in forging a deeper understanding of their lives and gaining insight from the stories of our foremothers. Both poetic and profound, it is an important contribution to one's bookshelf of self-actualization. No matter what your background or lifestyle, Mirkin's book contains nuggets of wisdom for you.

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Jewish News of Greater Phoenix March 25, 2005, Volume 57 No. 30

Marsha Mirkin's "The Women Who Danced at the Sea, Finding Ourselves in the Stories of our Biblical Foremothers" (Monkfish Book Publishing, $16.95 paperback) offers another take on midrash writing, this time with a psychological bent. Mirkin, a clinical psychologist and resident scholar at Brandeis University Women's' Studies Research Center, delves into the women of the Bible to find new meanings for emotional, spiritual and social development.

Studying Torah, begun when Mirkin was a young girl growing up in Brooklyn, led her to psychology; and psychology led her back to the Torah, she writes.

Each of the stories of the foremothers is interspersed with anecdotes from Mirkin's clinical practice. So we meet not only Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam and Ruth, among others, in her pages, but also Darlene, Claire, Jill and Josh. The interplay of ancient characters and their stories and their contemporary counterparts is affecting - and effective. Mirkin deals with modern day angst - depression, eating disorders, infertility, sibling rivalry - drawing on age-old wisdom and current psychological theory.

Mirkin writes that when she returned to Torah study as an adult, she was looking to learn the old truths but also to uncover new ones.

"If our Holy Book could survive all these years, if it is going to survive long after I'm gone, then it has to resonate with each of us, across gender, race, class, ethnicity and across time."

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Biblical Psychology February 4, 2004, Gabrielle Birkner

Ask clinical psychologist Marsha Mirkin, and she’ll tell you that the essential psychology textbook was written more than 3,000 years before the birth of pioneering analyst Sigmund Freud.

Freud may have deemed religion “a mass delusion,” but Mirkin contends that the Divine parables of the Torah can provide unrivaled insights into human behavior. In her recent book, “The Women Who Danced By The Sea: Finding ourselves in the stories of our biblical foremothers,” (Monkfish Book Publishing), she parallels the struggles of biblical figures with case studies from her years as a clinician.

An infertile Sarah finds herself racked with jealousy and feelings of inferiority when she faces a pregnant Hagar; the tempered pace at which Rebecca approaches her romantic relationship with Isaac allows him time to heal from his near-death at the hands of his father; after 400 years of bondage, the Israelites are overjoyed at the prospect of freedom, yet fear the unknown, and surely treacherous, landscape ahead. Mirkin translates Torah tales like these into modern lessons on power dynamics and empathy in relationships, and resistance to potentially positive changes.

Mental health professionals have long eschewed exploring spirituality and religion within the realm of traditional psychotherapy. “The scientific and research focus of the field made it hard to bring God, and belief, and faith into the picture,” Mirkin said.

But there are signs that the church-state-like barrier between psychotherapy and spirituality is collapsing. Recently Mirkin gave the keynote address on “Struggle, Relationship, and Spiritual Connection” at the Boston-based conference on spirituality and religion sponsored by the Harvard Medical School-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance. At the conference, physicians, nurses and therapists could receive continuing education credits towards renewing their professional licenses.

“Ten or fifteen years ago, all of this wasn’t talked about in mental health, and it certainly wouldn’t help you renew your license,” said Mirkin, 51, a resident scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Studies Research Center. “As baby boomers come of age, they have started to take religion and spirituality more seriously.”

Dr. David Pelcovitz, professor of psychology and education at Yeshiva University, agreed that, until recently, psychotherapists were uncomfortable probing the nexus of religion and science.

“Freud saw religion as some mass obsessive, compulsive neurosis,” Pelcovitz said. “Now the pendulum has swung and people are more open. More and more, there’s a recognition of that the rational goes hand-in-hand with the spiritual.”

Mirkin first became interested in Torah study about 12 years ago when her daughters, now 19 and 16, began Hebrew school at a Reform temple. Traditional interpretations of the Torah text, while they ascribed spiritual qualities to women, often portrayed them as temptresses, tricksters or rendered nameless and invisible. Mirkin saw a need for more progressive commentaries about the women of the Bible, many of whom she saw as compassionate, brave, bold and heroic.

“I read the stories through the lens of a psychologist and someone who studies Torah, and I was able to make the connection,” she said.

She wrote Hebrew school curricula based on her findings before beginning to teach “Torah for Psychotherapists” to mental health professionals at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Four years ago she took a hiatus from her private practice to devote herself full-time to lecturing and conducting Biblical psychology workshops for a mass audience.

Ruth Segaloff, a forensic social worker in Boston, has participated in nearly a dozen of Mirkin’s workshops. Segaloff, who works with foster children, said Mirkin’s interpretation of the Book of Esther was particularly powerful. “Esther is making a difficult decision, even though she knows there’s a cost,” she said. “It’s about feeling the fear and doing it anyway.”

She has recalled the story when she’s had to advise the courts to remove a child from a household. “It’s a hard decision, because you know you are going to hurt someone,” Segaloff said.

The title of Mirkin’s book is a reference to the bible’s Miriam, who, timbrel in hand, danced after the Israelites made their way safely across the Sea of Reeds, the same sea where their enemies met their demise. “Miriam’s message was coded in her timbrel,” Mirkin wrote. “ ‘Dance, sing!’ the music cries out, ‘Do what finds favor in God’s eyes. When there is a choice of life and death, choose life. At inspiring moments, celebrate the moment, be grateful for it, find the blessing in it and recognize God in our celebration.’ ”

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JewishMediaReview Growth Associates Publishers  Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins

The central theme of this book is that connection, empathy and the yearning for meaningful relationships form the core of our psychological and spiritual experiences. Each chapter looks at a different foremother and at a different issue with which she must grapple in order to gain the wisdom to move into deeper relationship with herself, those she loves and God. Their struggles are tied to those of the women and men Mirkin has met in her twenty-year clinical practice, and looks at what we can learn from their experiences. Our foremothers’ stories offer profound lessons in living. Their legacies can guide us as we face similar challenges, and find similar hope and blessings on our paths to more intimate connection. The women included in her studies are Eve, Sarah and Hagar, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel, Miriam, Hannah, Ruth and Naomi.

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JBooks.com  Rebecca Phillips

Imagine that Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, Ruth and Naomi, and our other celebrated biblical women all sat down for a group therapy session. Perhaps they're all participating in Overlooked Women Anonymous, a group besot by a patriarchal culture and a sense that their stories haven't been fully told. The facilitator of this group would be Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D., a psychotherapist who, in her new slim volume, Women Who Danced by the Sea, turns to these biblical women to help her better understand the struggles of her modern-day, non-biblical patients, and vice versa.

As our foremothers sat in a circle, sharing their stories, they're likely to uncover more than just the surface stories familiar from Hebrew school. Eve, it turns out, is not just an apple-munching woman who'll do anything a snake—or her husband—tells her to; instead, she's a brave go-getter, faced with options, who takes a chance on a more fulfilling life. Rebecca, we learn, is not merely a conniving mother playing favorites when she convinces her son Jacob to steal his brother Esau's birthright. Instead she's a mother with a keen understanding of the nature of familial relationships, and a willingness to sacrifice her own happiness to set history in motion. The results of this monster therapy session are all detailed in Mirkin's book, which is a worthwhile but flawed contribution to contemporary women's midrash.

Mirkin, a resident scholar at Brandeis University Women's Studies Research Center, based the book on classes she has taught about psychology and the Bible. She divides her book into eight chapters, each one about a particular woman or group of women from the Bible. Interspersed throughout her retellings of the familiar stories are tales accumulated from Mirkin's 20 years of private practice in psychotherapy. She relates Rebecca's struggle over Jacob's birthright to the fights between a couple she once counseled about their own son's future. In the sibling rivalry between Leah and Rachel she finds lessons for the contemporary struggle of her patient Flora, who was jealous of her sister's achievements.

Mirkin's finest chapter is about Hannah, in which she simultaneously tells the story of her patient Liz. They are two women desperate to have children. Mirkin broadens Hannah's pain, explaining it is not just about wanting a baby: "Whenever we want something with all our heart and soul so that it becomes the singular purpose of our lives, it is so painfully difficult to share a physical or emotional space with the person who has achieved the object of our desire." Mirkin exhibits a unique psychological empathy for both her patients and our foremothers, an understanding we don't often find in interpretations of biblical characters' motivations. Readers understand Hannah's grieving over being childless, her feelings of being misunderstood and alone, thanks to Mirkin's obvious sympathy and concern.