Aryeh Kaplan

Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan (Hebrew: אריה משה אליהו קפלן‎‎; October 23, 1934 – January 28, 1983)^[16][17] was an American Orthodox rabbi and author known for his knowledge of physics and kabbalah.^[18] He was lauded as an original thinker and prolific writer and is most well known for his translations of the Torah, writings on Kabbalah, and introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs and philosophy.^[19] His works are often regarded as a significant factor in the growth of the baal teshuva movement.^[20][21]

Biography

Kaplan was born in the Bronx, New York City to Samuel and Fannie Kaplan^[22] of the Sefardi Recanati family from Salonika, Greece.^[17] His mother died when he was 13 years old, and his two younger sisters, Sandra and Barbara, were sent to a foster home. Kaplan did not grow up religious, and was originally known as "Len". His family only had a small connection to Jewish practice, but he was encouraged to say Kaddish for his mother. On his first day at the minyan, Henoch Rosenberg, a 14-year Klausenburger chossid, realized that Len was out of place, as he was not wearing tefillin or opening a siddur, and befriended him. Henoch Rosenberg and his siblings taught Hebrew to Kaplan, and within a few days, Kaplan was learning Chumash.^[1] When he was 15, Kaplan enrolled at Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, and afterwards went to the Mir yeshiva in Brooklyn. Kaplan then went to the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem in Israel, where he received semikhah from some of Israel's foremost rabbinic authorities, including Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel in 1956. He earned his bachelor's degree in physics - with highest honors - at the University of Louisville in 1961^[3] and a M.S. degree in physics at the University of Maryland in 1963.^[2]

His major influence was Rabbi Zvi Aryeh Rosenfeld (1922–1978), who single-handedly introduced the teachings of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov to American shores beginning in the 1950s, inspiring many students at Brooklyn yeshivas, especially Torah Vodaas. Working together, Kaplan and Rosenfeld translated and annotated Rabbi Nachman's Tikkun (based on the Tikkun HaKlali). At Rosenfeld's suggestion, Kaplan also produced the first-ever English translation of Sichot HaRan ("Rabbi Nachman's Wisdom"), which Rosenfeld edited. He also translated and annotated Until the Mashiach: The Life of Rabbi Nachman, a day-to-day account of Rebbe Nachman's life, for the newly established Breslov Research Institute founded by Rosenfeld's son-in-law, Chaim Kramer. Kaplan's later writings further explored Hasidut, Kabbalah and Jewish meditation. (Kaplan himself utilized the meditative form of Kabbalah on a daily basis.^[23]) From 1976 onward, Kaplan's major activity was the translation into English of the recently translated (Ladino into Hebrew, 1967) anthology, Me'am Lo'ez. He also completed The Living Torah, a new translation of the Five Books of Moses and the Haftarot, shortly before his death.

Family

Rabbi Kaplan married Tobie Goldstein on June 13, 1961, with whom he ultimately had nine children.^[2][4]

Death

Kaplan died of a heart attack on January 28, 1983, at the age of 48.^[4] He was buried on the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem, Israel, off Aweiss street, in the part known as "Agudas Achim Anshei America" "Chelek Alef" (Portion 1).

Professional life

Before becoming well known as an author, Kaplan held rabbinic and leadership positions in many states. He began his first professional position after completing his bachelor's degree, as a research scientist at the Fluid Mechanics Division of the National Bureau of Standards, where he was in charge of Magnetohydrodynamics research. During this time, he received a cooperative graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation^[5] and the US Air Force for his graduate work at the University of Maryland.^[6][7]

Kaplan then changed career paths, becoming the Rabbi of Adas Israel in Mason City, Iowa (1965),^[8][9] B'nai Sholom in Blountville, Tennessee (1966), Adath Israel (now known as Adath Shalom a Conservative synagogue in Dover, New Jersey (1967)), and Ohav Shalom in Albany, New York (1969). While in Albany, Kaplan also functioned as the president of the AJCC (Albany Jewish Community Center) and the Hillel Counselor to the B'nai B'rith Hillel Counselorship at University at Albany, SUNY.^[13][14][15] In 1971, Kaplan moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he lived until the end of his life.^[2] In Brooklyn, he held many positions, all of which involved religious leadership or writing and editing religious publications:

• Chaplain at Hunter and Baruch colleges (New York), from 1971 to 1972,
• Associate editor of Intercom, and Orthodox Jewish Scientists, from 1972 to 1973,
• Editor of Jewish Life and publisher of Union Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America from 1973 to 1974, and
• Director of publishing at the NCSY from 1974 to 1975

Kaplan produced works on topics as varied as prayer, Jewish marriage and meditation; his writing was also remarkable in that it incorporated ideas from across the spectrum of Rabbinic literature, including Kabbalah and Hasidut. His introductory and background material contain much scholarly and original research. In researching his books, Kaplan once remarked: "I use my physics background to analyze and systematize data, very much as a physicist would deal with physical reality."^[24] This ability enabled him to undertake large projects, producing over 60 books.^[19] His works have been translated into Czech, French, Hungarian, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Kaplan was described by Rabbi Pinchas Stolper, his original sponsor, as never fearing to speak his mind. "He saw harmony between science and Judaism, where many others saw otherwise. He put forward creative and original ideas and hypotheses, all the time anchoring them in classical works of rabbinic literature." His works reflect his physicist training—concise, systematic, and detail-oriented.^[19] His works continue to attract a wide readership, and are studied by both novices and the newly religious, as well as by scholars where the extensive footnotes provide a unique resource.

Bibliography

Religious works

• The Living Torah, Rabbi Kaplan's best-known work, is a widely used, scholarly (and user friendly^[19]) translation into English of the Torah. It is noteworthy for its detailed index, thorough cross-references, extensive footnotes with maps and diagrams, and research on realia, flora, fauna, and geography (here, drawing on sources as varied as Josephus, Dio Cassius, Philostratus and Herodotus). The footnotes also indicate differences in interpretation amongst the commentators, classic and modern.^[25] It was one of the first translations structured around the parshiyot, the traditional division of the Torah text. (Moznaim, 1981, ISBN 0-940118-35-1)
• "Handbook of Jewish Thought," produced early in his career, is an encyclopedic and systematic treatment of Judaism's fundamental beliefs.^[26] Because of the work's structure and detail, the references, with the index, can serve as a research resource across almost all of rabbinic literature. (Moznaim, Vol. 1, 1979, ISBN 0-940118-49-1; Vol. 2, 1992, ISBN 0-940118-79-3)
• "Torah Anthology," a 45-volume translation of Me'am Lo'ez from Ladino (Judæo-Spanish) into English. Rabbi Kaplan was the primary translator.
• "Made in Heaven: A Jewish Wedding Guide" (Moznaim, ISBN 978-0940118119)
• "Tefillin: God, Man and Tefillin"; "Love Means Reaching Out"; "Maimonides' Principles"; "The Fundamentals of Jewish Faith"; "The Waters of Eden: The Mystery of the Mikvah"; "Jerusalem: Eye of the Universe" — a series of highly popular and influential booklets on aspects of Jewish philosophy which span the entire spectrum of Jewish thought, as well as various religious practices. Published by the Orthodox Union/NCSY^[24] or as an anthology by Artscroll, 1991, ISBN 1-57819-468-7.
• Five booklets of the Young Israel Intercollegiate Hashkafa Series — "Belief in God"; "Free Will and the Purpose of Creation"; "The Jew"; "Love and the Commandments"; and "The Structure of Jewish Law" launched his writing career. He was also a frequent contributor to The Jewish Observer. (These articles have been published as a collection: Artscroll, 1986, ISBN 0-89906-173-7)
• "The Real Messiah? A Jewish Response to Missionaries" at the Wayback Machine (archived May 29, 2008).
• "If You Were God," his final work, published posthumously in 1983. Moving beyond superficiality the slender book encourages the reader to ponder topics concerning the nature of being and divine providence.^[27]
• Kaplan translated and annotated classic works on Jewish mysticism — Sefer Yetzirah, Bahir, and Derekh Hashem — as well as produced much original work on the subject in English. His Moreh Ohr, a Hebrew-language work, discusses the purpose of Creation, tzimtzum and free will from a kabbalistic point of view.

He wrote three well-known books on Jewish meditation. These works revive and reconstruct ancient Jewish practices and vocabulary relating to meditation. He also wrote and translated several works related to Hasidic Judaism in general and to the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in particular.

Academic papers

While a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Rabbi Kaplan published the following academic papers:

• Oneda, S.; Kim, Y.S.; Kaplan, L.M. (1964). "Final-state interactions in η 0 → 3π decay". Il Nuovo Cimento. 34 (3): 655–664. doi:10.1007/BF02750008. 
• Kaplan, L.M.; Resnikoff, M. (November 1967). "Matrix Products and the Explicit 3, 6, 9, and 12-j Coefficients of the Regular Representation of SU(n)". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 8: 2194–2205. Bibcode:1967JMP.....8.2194K. doi:10.1063/1.1705141. 

See also

• Modern day Orthodox Jewish views on evolution

References

External links

• Online Living Torah by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan at ort.org
• Online Sabbath - Day of Eternity by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan at ou.org
• Collected Writings on aish.com
• Lecture on Jewish Mysticism by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
• Gravesite of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan