The Women Who Danced by the Sea: Finding Ourselves in the Stories of our Biblical Foremothers

“This is a wise and wonderful book, a book to open minds and nourish souls.”
—Rabbi Harold Kushner, When Bad Things Happen To Good People

“Mirkin is a passionate storyteller who enables us to see ourselves in each story that she tells. The connection between biblical women and people living today is so moving and insightful that it is almost impossible to read this book without feeling inspired to grapple with our own relationships and emerge more fully vested in life and love.” —Harriet Lerner, Ph.D., The Dance of Anger

The Women Who Danced by the Sea invites us to embark on a journey that can lead us to deeper connection within ourselves, with those we love, and with the increasingly complex and dangerous world in which we live.

The Women Who Danced By The Sea is the first book of its kind to view the lives of biblical women through the lens of contemporary psychological theories. Each chapter looks at a different foremother and a different issue she must grapple with in order to gain the wisdom to move into deeper relationship with herself, those she loves, and the Divine. Dr. Mirkin ties their struggles to those of contemporary women and men she 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, have similar sorrows and confusions and find similar hope and blessings on our path to more intimate connection.

Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and resident scholar at Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. The ideas for this book are drawn from courses she has been teaching on psychological interpretations and the contemporary relevance of the Bible. Dr. Mirkin has held appointments at Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine, and has been on the faculty of the Jean Baker Miller Institute at Wellesley College.