This is a year-long guide to women's groups celebration of Rosh hodesh, including new and traditional ritual, song, prayer, meditation, and Midrash for each month

A terminally ill teenager is forced to choose between her religion and her life Adam doesn’t think much of it when Miriam faints in class. She’s an oddball, a student who hardly talks, never makes eye contact, and wears clothes that seem straight out of the 19th century. She says she’s fine, and he wants to believe her. But when she passes out while they’re working on an English assignment, Adam takes Miriam to the last place she wants to go: the hospital. Miriam has bone cancer. She believes that God will heal her, but if He doesn’t, she plans to let herself die. Miriam is a member of a devout religious sect in which women have little power and medicine is strictly forbidden. In order for Miriam to forgo treatment, Adam’s father sues the state on her behalf—even as Adam himself tries to convince her to accept the doctors’ help. As her illness rages on, Miriam will teach Adam the meaning of love and faith—and he will give her a reason to live.

Weaving together Jewish lore, the voices of Jewish foremothers, Yiddish fable, midrash and stories of her own imagining, Ellen Frankel has created in this book a breathtakingly vivid exploration into what the Torah means to women. Here are Miriam, Esther, Dinah, Lilith and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life -- work, sex, marriage, her connection to God and her place in the Jewish community and in the world. The Five Books of Miriam makes an invaluable contribution to Torah study and adds rich dimension to the ongoing conversation between Jewish women and Jewish tradition.

Please see the Zohar Home Page for ancillary materials, including the publication schedule, press release, Aramaic text, questions, and answers.

The story of Miriam Peretz's life the story of a mother and a homeland; of love for the Land of Israel, the State of Israel, and the Jewish people; and of the victory of spirit and faith. 1st Lieutenant Uriel Peretz, commander of a Golani Brigade Special Forces unit, dreamed of becoming the first Moroccan chief of staff of the IDF. But his mother Miriam sensed that her oldest son would not leave Lebanon safely. On the day he was drafted, she became a woman waiting for news of disaster. In November 1998, Uriel was fatally wounded by an explosive device planted by Hezbollah terrorists. He was 22. Miriam transformed the pain over his death into education and volunteer service. She began to visit schools and military bases, talking about her son's leadership vision. Tragically, in March 2010 Miriam was forced to face another test. Her second son, Major Eliraz Peretz, was killed in an exchange of fire in the Gaza Strip. He died almost twelve years after he had eulogized his older brother: Sometimes we pay a price for doing the right thing. The price of life. Eliraz, who was 32, left behind a wife and four children, including a baby just two months old. Overnight, the mother who lost two sons as well as her husband, whose heart couldn't bear the death of his oldest son became a symbol of grief and of strength. In December 2010, IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi awarded her a medal of appreciation. He said: Miriam's ability to continue to express her deep pain and channel it into a contribution to the education and formation of future generations, serves as an example and model of inspiration for us all.

This book is grounded in a theorization of the author's personal story including growing up as a female adoptee of a single parent in a patriarchal context, and current material context as an immigrant in New Zealand.

Passover this year was not all at what Miriam expected.