When I first met Miriam Arman several years ago, I said to her, “I don’t know why, but I need to know you.” I thought to myself, “Something about her is compelling and indescribable, mysterious yet accessible, conspicuous and uncompromising. I want to know what she understands about Yiddishkeit as a Baalat Teshuvah (returning to full Jewish observance) and how and why she became who she is.” Her distinctively strong voice mesmerized me with an articulate authority of a woman who seemed to already know what the questions are, where they really come from, and what the answers should be.
Everybody knows when she walks into a room that Miriam is different. “Who is that woman?” A colorful fl owing dress, adorned by her signature Ten Commandments pendent. Behind a face, framed with short blond hair, dancing eyes exuberant with character, seem to speak vigilant honesty of inner truth through a veil of fearlessness that masks her vulnerability. Passionate eyes that have surely experienced human wars know the angst of defeat and the rapture of triumph seem to scream from her soul, “I will tell you what I know about mundane, conspicuous reality.” Miriam embodies a tapestry of complicated gentle strength and acute intuition. Her intense looks seem to draw you in, begging to share with you her ocular vision of ethereal perception – “Just listen and you will ‘know’.” Miriam is a poetic artist whose words form major arteries of compressed emotion that connect her heart to yours. Her art of writing elevates secular concerns and transports the reader to expanded consciousness where new possibilities of resolve can exist. Th is new reality seems to become an expression of the divine, a spiritual cornucopia of revealed, vulnerable and aesthetic understanding of Hashem (G-d) and an exploration of one’s place within it – ‘soul-speak’ of mesmerizing eloquence. This is a woman whois able to reach beyond the comfort of ‘static’ – through “I just am!” complacency toward living through her multi-dimensional essence, as another vessel of G-d’s perfect design.
The wellspring of her powerful writing in Coming Home reflects raw unadulterated truthfulness. Her prolific compositions seem to transcend themselves as she moves through ‘the beyond’ by engaging her ‘third eye,’ (enlightened inner vision). She is miraculously able to connect to the realm of that Ein Sof (infi nity) so her knowledge can be released. By listening to this inner voice speak, where truth and love connect to the source without constriction, she is able to allow the light from illumination to be revealed. Her wisdom gleaned through this tethered lifetime of torture is like major music with unexpected syncopation's and flourishing crescendos with frequent and surprising changes of meter and accents. Th e drama of her life unfolds its humanity and temporarily resolves itself to the relief of the reader. We wipe our soul tears yet yearn for more. From Miriam’s sacred well of Chesed (loving kindness) and humility we want to share this abundant essence of G-dliness and maybe the secret of being holy from her teachings that can be both wise, yet simple and fi nally obvious. Th is Miriam is truly a gift in our lifetime. She is a testimony to human spiritual potential if one is able to break through their Klipah (shell) and submit an aching heart to G-d, listen for sacred direction and then without fear commit to the ultimate possibility of one’s spiritual potential and 'knowingness'.
I learned from Miriam that all voice, all language, all verbal expression comes from the same place – from deep within ‘Hashem’s Space.’ Th is concept directs her work. Th rough her ‘soul work’ Miriam changes lives. Her gift is the ability to manifest her Neshoma (soul) knowledge through words, through writing and poetry and transport the reader to higher realms of truth and self-understanding. She invites you to go ‘inside’ with her. Her speeches, writings and art are the very expression of the awesome deep silence within her soul, a private connection with Hashem (G-d) in public, compelling and mesmerizing. Th e pageantry of this journey of her Jewish soul,through centuries, reveals itself as a gift to us in this time of Golus (exile), on the eve of redemption. Like a great symphony played as a single voice, hers is a passionate and exotic expression, with a clear and direct emotional range of her soul’s wanderings through this lifetime. As the Rebbe’s (Leader of Lubavitsch Chassidim) spiritual daughter she expresses the latent music of her soul, weaving among vignettes and interludes from lifetimes of choices that have led her to the ultimate revelation of her gifts of wisdom throughout this lifetime. As if a gossamer thread connects her to Hashem and her Rebbe, she has the unique ability to expose her deep hidden truths with childlike transparency. You watch, you listen and you understand something new about G-d, the universe and your important place within it with an unbelievable hope, just like Torah’s prophetess, Miriam HaNeviah.
Here is a collection of more than three years of dramatic and personal spiritual life events, as told by a single, professional middle-aged woman who gave up a comfortable home with a swimming pool in sunny Miami, Florida, for a religious life in the black hat community of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, New York. Th is closely-knit family community absorbed her with open arms while teaching her to embrace the life style of full Torah observance with the fewest outside impediments of secular influence. This was quite a jump for a worldly woman who speaks a number of languages, has lived and taught Voice all over the world, published books, is a noted Fine Artist, and sought after lecturer and key note speaker. She made this decision with full Kavanah (intention) and commitment, just as she does everything in her life.
The rich influence of this Chassidic (movement within Judaism founded by Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov) family community stimulated her mind to re-frame her writings and poetry from her mostly secular influence toward deeper spiritual understanding and its expression. The highest level of Chesed (kindness) is giving of oneself. Th is she does, often with painful honesty. Living in Crown Heights has infused her with fresh spiritual energy resulting in a plethora of significant works collected here for the first time.
Coming Home is a compilation of prose and poetry testifying to the power of her adherence to the Chassidic teachings of the Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and their profound eff ect on her creative and artistic expression. You may say, “I don’t understand poetry.” Her poetry is as easily understandable as it is relevant to Jews everywhere. As you read Coming Home, you will know Miriam as a woman who has endured muchand survives again each day in order to fulfi ll her mission of empowering others to become their fullest potential and to live within their greatest possibility as Hashem’s (G-d’s) messengers of Yiddishkeit (Judaism).
While "Coming Home" is about Miriam, it is more about us as Jews connected and united by our emotional DNA regardless whether we are observant from birth, returning, assimilated or converted. It is about uniting and strengthening our memory, even if only from vague glimmers, to remember what we have forgotten since we accepted our gift of the Torah at Mt. Sinai. She helps us to remember and believe in our legacy and to act on this memory as we fight our pull toward things harmful (Yetzer HaRa) and find our way back. Latent memories hide divine sparks of light that must be revealed and uncovered in order to illuminate the world through Torah and Mitzvot.
Miriam grabs you, moves you, and opens something new within you. Everything she writes is an event, a confession of her humanness. As a classical woman of articulate, fearless and extemporaneous truth she touches a nerve, giving “Ah Ha” moments to the reader. While everyone has their story, hers seems to make yours more relevant. Miriam’s understanding is about the depravity of the soul. From Miriam you learn how to crawl out of the black hole, as she has done many times. Moreover you learn that you “can.”
