New Piece Out on the Topic of Faith and the Shema

August 29, 2018beccakinla news, Uncategorized Tags: essay, faith, jew, jewish, orthodox, personal essay, rough patch, shema 5 Comments

Howdy!

We’ve been going through some ups and downs in the Klempner household, and while today I feel like singing Hallelukah, I wrote a little personal essay while suffering through a spiritual valley a few weeks back. It’s about the Shema and relating to G-d when you feel disappointed and downtrodden. The piece is up today on The Wisdom Daily, and you can find it here.

I’m started to prepare a bit for NaNoWriMo 2018, and I’ve been looking up agents to submit my most recent novel to. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance to tell you about both soon.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger on Pexels.com

My most recent book review: Calling Out to You by Tehilla Edelman

November 29, 2015November 29, 2015beccakinla Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, new book, new release, recommended reading, review Tags: anthology, anxiety, calling out to you, Chareidi, depression, hareidi, health, jew, jewish, mental health, mental illness, new book, OCD, orthodox, recommended reading, religion, review, tehilla edelman, Torah 8 Comments

Last week, The Jewish Home L.A. published my book review of Tehilla Edelman’s new anthology about depression and anxiety disorders in the Orthodox world, Calling Out to You.

Here’s the review.

Calling Out to You

Not only is the book an amazing resource for observant Jews with mental illness, but it’s also essential reading for their rabbis, principals, therapists, family, and friends. The format is innovative as it contains not only articles about treating depression, OCD, and the like, but also poems and narratives written by patients themselves. Highly recommended.

Visiting elsewhere today for the Orthodox Women Talk roundtable

September 11, 2014beccakinla insider view, jew, Jewish, Judaism, Orthodox, prayer, roundtable opinion, women Tags: insider view, jew, jewish, judaism, keshet starr, opinion, orthodox, prayer, rivki silver, roundtable, women 2 Comments

Rivki Silver from Life in the Married Lane organized a Jewish women’s roundtable, Orthodox Women Talk. Today’s topic is how to deal with long services in synagogue when you may or may not understand the language. 7 bloggers — including me — give responses over at this week’s host’s, Keshet Starr’s, blog. I found myself agreeing with a lot of what the other women said (okay, pretty much all of it). One of the things that I liked most was that the women selected reflect different stages of life and different backgrounds. Check it out. (If you’re so inclined…)

The new Tablet story my editor is afraid I’m going to get hate mail for

July 10, 2014July 9, 2014beccakinla Jewish, Jewish writing, Judaism, klempner, kosher, ladies-only, magazines Tags: comments, controversy, don't wear, essay, feminism, girls, hareidi, hate mail, jew, jewess, jewish, ladies, magazine, orthodox, rebecca klempner, Tablet, tefillin, trolls, wear, women, writing 4 Comments

My newest piece is up on Tablet. When I submitted the pitch several months ago to the Life and Religion editor, Wayne Hoffman, he cautioned me: do you really want to do this?

The topic of the essay is a controversial one in the Jewish community — women wearing Tefillin — and he was afraid I’d get a lot of trolls. And probably some genuine hate mail, to boot.

My original proposal was a much wider topic — the denigration of traditional feminine roles by many “feminists” in the Jewish community. I shot off the query letter in a fit of pique after yet another feminist looked down her nose at my lifestyle and basically told me I was so persecuted I didn’t know that I was persecuted.

The first draft was a mess: too big, too venting, too…too…everything.

I have to really give credit to the very special Mr. Hoffman, who asked the right questions and nudged me in the right direction until I could be proud of the resulting essay. We cut most of the first draft, and narrowed the topic considerably, then tried to focus on the positive aspects of the story.

Anyway, I hope you check the essay out and share and comment and all that.

New wacky Passover poetry

April 6, 2014April 8, 2014beccakinla advice, Jewish, jewish motherhood, Jewish writing, klempner, literature, passover, pesach, poetry Tags: chometz, jew, jewish, judaism, kooky, laugh, levity, limerick, Passover, passover cleaning, Pesach, pesach cleaning, poem, reading, share, silly, wacky Leave a comment

I’m not going to have much time to post in length before Pesach hits next week, but I’m going to try to share something small every day to make up for it.

So here’s your tiny morsel of Passover-related kookiness for today:

(throat-clearing)

You cleansed the windows of mud

And you scrubbed all the toys in your tub

But you still won’t be through

When Pesach is due

If you don’t clean chometz off the rug.

Free writing tip…don’t be afraid to write bad poetry. And if you’d like to share your own corny/hammy/couldn’t-hechsher-if-it-tried Pesach poetry, just add it in the comments.

Passover looming ahead: Not quite panicking yet

March 23, 2014beccakinla Jewish, Jewish writing, literature, los angeles, magazines, newpapers, newspaper, Orthodox, serial, teens Tags: 2014, 5774, action, binah, binah between, Binah Bunch, children, interview, jew, jewish, judaism, kids, Klempner, literature, Menucha Publishers, new, orthodox, Passover, Pesach, picture books, rebecca klempner, serial, suspense, teens, tweens, Tzivia Erlich-Klein Leave a comment

Due to the onslaught of housework, etc., that Pesach entails, as well as some nifty work assignments, I’ll be posting less for the next month or so. However, I do want to share with my readers several bits of good news: Continue reading →

Rebecca Klempner

Author page of Rebecca Klempner

jew

New Piece Out on the Topic of Faith and the Shema

My most recent book review: Calling Out to You by Tehilla Edelman

Visiting elsewhere today for the Orthodox Women Talk roundtable

The new Tablet story my editor is afraid I’m going to get hate mail for

Passover looming ahead: Not quite panicking yet

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So here’s your tiny morsel of Passover-related kookiness for today:

Free writing tip…don’t be afraid to write bad poetry. And if you’d like to share your own corny/hammy/couldn’t-hechsher-if-it-tried Pesach poetry, just add it in the comments.

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