Crown Heights Authors Team Up

Two Crown Heights authors, Mrs. Miriam Yerushalmi and Rabbi Chaim Miller, have teamed up to produce “Reaching New Heights,” a new series of self-help books. The first two volumes are now available on Amazon.com and local Judaica stores.

The aim of this series, written by Mrs. Yerushalmi and published with the guidance of Rabbi Miller, is to improve relationships and achieve self-mastery through the teachings of Chassidus. Each volume provides information and strategies that have been proven effective in the past three decades of Mrs. Yerushalmi’s work as a marriage and family counselor, and includes exercises and meditations that reinforce her message.

In “Reaching New Heights Through Kindness in Marriage” Mrs. Yerushalmi elucidates the practical guidelines that have helped countless couples preparing for marriage, as well as married couples whose relationships were at risk, find true marital happiness.

“Reaching New Heights Through Prayer and Meditation” is a step-by-step guide on how to quiet your inner voice of conflict, master your emotions, and create a sense of inner peace and confidence. As an experienced counselor, Mrs. Yerushalmi teaches you how to become the “designer” of your own reality.

Leading rabbis have noted the importance of this work, including Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski and Rabbi Shloma Majeski.

“Miriam Yerushalmi is an astounding therapist,” says Dr. Abraham J. Twerski. “She has been working for two years with SPARKS, an organization I am very close with which helps women with perinatal depression, and she is devoted to helping women in need and is successful in treating them. I believe her book Reaching New Heights has a lot of knowledge to offer and will be an inspiring read to all.”

Rabbi Shloma Majeski commented, “A beautiful blend of her Chassidic insight and her understanding of human nature.”

Mrs. Yerushalmi, who started the organization SANE seventeen years ago to help individuals in crisis and works with post-partum women at SPARKS, has an ongoing series of online classes available at TorahAnytime.com and Torahcafe.com, which explore mental health through the lens of Chassidus and holistic living.

She has also written other books on relationships and self-mastery for children as well adults. Next to hit the bookstores is her children’s book “Let’s Go to Israel,” which addresses the concept of achieving “moach shalit al ha-lev” (the power of the mind over emotion) through easy to understand text accompanied by realistic and mesmerizing illustrations by Esther Ito Perez.

“[Let’s Go to Israel is] an amazing book filled with depth and practical lessons, particularly highlighting how the mind can have mastery over the heart’s emotions,” says Rabbi Shloma Majeski. “It is a book from which all children looking forward to celebrating bar and bas mitzvah would gain tremendously and deepen their experience. A beautiful book that has such a great and necessary message for children and adults alike, and will inspire children to do mitzvahs in a positive, uplifting way.”

The earlier illustrated children’s book “Let’s Go Camping and Discover Our True Nature” draws upon teachings from the first chapter of Tanya to introduce children to the different aspects of their personality based on the four elements, while motivating them to use their potential for greater good.

Mrs. Yerushalmi emphasizes the unique perspective her books present: “My books merge an entertaining story with deep psychological insight into the emotional challenges children frequently encounter, and presents emotionally balancing ideas and tools that will prepare them to deal with those challenges through understanding themselves and understanding that their struggles are designed specifically for them by Hashem.”

“Most children struggle with accepting themselves, they can’t handle the inner challenges of their yetzer hara, and they often sabotage themselves because of their inability to have self-mastery, which only exacerbates their lack of self-love,” Mrs. Yerushalmi explains. “I wish I had had this knowledge when I was a child, because it would have saved me from a lot of self-doubt and a lot of inner turmoil.”

Titles of Miriam Yerushalmi’s newly released children’s books, available in Hebrew, English, and Yiddish, include: Beautiful like a Kallah, Color My Day the Jewish Way, My Best Dress (a modesty book), and Carrying a Tune in Tzefas. Sequels to the well-received earlier books, Fievel the Felafel Ball Who Wanted to Do a Mitzvah and Gedalia the Goldfish Who Wanted to Be Like the King, are in publication.

Rabbi Chaim Miller’s popular books on Rambam, Chumash, Tehillim, Tanya, and the Haggadah cover vast territory in a comprehensible manner. In addition to “Turning Judaism Outwards: A Biography of the Rebbe,” Rabbi Miller published the best-selling “Kol Menachem Chumash—Gutnick Edition,” which made over one thousand complex discourses of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe easily accessible to the layman. His 2011 compilation, the “Lifestyle Books Torah: The Five Books of Moses—Slager Edition” was distributed to thousands of servicemen and women in the U.S. Army.