More Midrash and Stories of Women and Torah

I recommend to all another book that sets a focus on women in the Bible as reflecting and being reflected by contemporary stories. The author is Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and resident scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center.

Mirkin has studied Torah since her early student days. She relates the stories of biblical women in their relationship to their families and the critical events that arise. The approach Mirkin takes is a contemporary ‘Midrash’.

For example, in the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael, Mirkin says, “… When God said ‘listen’ to Sarah’s voice, Abraham thought God meant obey and went into action mode by expelling Hagar and Ishmael. But, as I tell many of the heterosexual couples with whom I work, ‘Men might believe in the statement ‘don’t just sit there, do something;’ but women often need you to ‘don’t just do something, sit there’!”

P. 39 The Women Who Danced by the Sea