My completely unsolicited review of “Megillas Lester”

March 13, 2014March 23, 2014beccakinla family, fantasy, frum, good news, humor, Jewish, Judaism, kids, kosher, new, online, Orthodox, purim, review, reviews Tags: chananiah kramer, entertainment, film, funny, holiday, jew, jewish, judaism, kolrom, kosher, megillah, megillas lester, megillat esther, movie, purim, purimspiel, recommend, recommendation, review, spiel, streaming, video, vimeo 7 Comments

After all my recent ranting and raving about Esther in pop culture, I watched a video this afternoon with the husband and kids that made me feel better. I’d first heard about it on Tablet, then on the OU’s website.

Megillas Lester–a hilarious film in the Purim Spiel tradition.

Kolrom media, who has produced a lot of music videos and shorts for the Orthodox audience (like the video for the song “Ana Avda” and a hilarious bit on Aish.com called “Sicko” about how NOT to do the mitzvah of visiting the sick), has just released a video about Purim that refers to all the midrashim and commentaries I talked about in my rant. And it’s funny. Although Esther doesn’t make an appearance. Even Mordechai barely shows up.

That’s because “Megillas Lester” is about a boy, Lester, who dreams he has messed up the Purim story so much that Esther doesn’t have a chance to become queen. And Mordechai doesn’t get a chance to save the king. So who will save the Jewish people from Haman’s evil plot? Continue reading →

Time to be funny! Turn things upside down! It’s really Adar this time. I promise.

March 3, 2014beccakinla adar, funny, how to write, humor, Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, purim Tags: adar, adar sheini, funny, happy, Hebrew month, humor, jew, jewish, joke, joy, judaism, let loose, month, purim, second, silly, simcha, stories Leave a comment

Okay, so for those who have no idea what the title of today’s post means, I’ll clarify:

Don’t you wanna dress up for Purim?

The Hebrew month of Adar contains the wacky holiday of Purim. The thing is, when there’s a leap year, there’s an entire extra month of Adar–because if you’re going to have a month that comes twice, it might as well as be the one that’s known as the happiest of the year. But there’s only Purim in the second Adar.

After a month of tolerating a giant “SIKE!” the second Adar of 5774 started yesterday. Jewish kids everywhere are going crazy. Continue reading →

Need a little poetry this holiday season?

November 21, 2013November 21, 2013beccakinla chanukah, humor, Jewish writing, poem, poetry Tags: 2013, chanukah, funny, haiku, hanukkah, holiday, humor, jewish, jews, judaism, laughs, magazine, poetry, pop culture, season, Tablet, thanksgiving, Thanksgivukkah, wacky Leave a comment

Can’t get enough Thanksgivukkah craziness? Tablet just put out poetry inspired by the crazy Chanukah/Thanksgiving mashup. To check it out, click here.

Here’s my own contribution:

What shall we do with
Our brand-new menurkey
The other seven days?

My first foray into playwriting: lessons learned about writing and directing plays for kids

September 16, 2013September 16, 2013beccakinla advice, authors, children, children's books, how to write, humor, kids, publishing, spiel, stage, stories, students, teshuva, theater, writer, writing, yom kippur Tags: actor, actors and actresses, actress, adaptation, author, Bible, big fish, child, day school, directing, jewish, Jonah, kid, library, pint size, play, playwriting, production, reader's theater, rosh hashanah and yom kippur, school, stage, story of jonah, student, Tanach, theater, theatre, whale, writing, yeshiva, yom kippur, Yonah 1 Comment

As I mentioned last week in passing, I spent a good chunk of time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur preparing a play for the kids at my synagogue. The topic: the story of Jonah, which is read during the afternoon of Yom Kippur.

Yonah waiting to see if Nineveh gets destroyed. He’s kinda hoping it does. How’s that for schadenfreude?

Now, I’ve always thought this story was packed with humor. I mean, G-d singles Jonah out for a little tete-a-tete and he hops on a boat headed in the opposite direction as the mission G-d sent him on? Then he sleeps through the ginormous storm that has everyone else aboard freaking out and get swallowed by a giant fish. Come on!

And when Jonah finally makes it to Nineveh, it gets even wackier. Continue reading →

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

humor

Time to be funny! Turn things upside down! It’s really Adar this time. I promise.

Need a little poetry this holiday season?

Here’s my own contribution:

My first foray into playwriting: lessons learned about writing and directing plays for kids

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