Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal life | |
| Born | Leonard Martin Kaplan October 23, 1934 Bronx, NY |
| Died | January 28, 1983(1983-01-28) (aged 48) Brooklyn, NY |
| Alma mater | University of Louisville,University of Maryland,Yeshiva Torah Vodaas,Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon,Mir Yeshiva (Jerusalem) |
| Religious life | |
| Religion | Judaism |
| Denomination | Orthodox |
| Profession | Rabbi, Writer, Physicist |
| Position | Rabbi |
| Synagogue | Adas Israel, B'nai Sholom, Adath Israel, Ohav Shalom |
| Other | Physicist |
| Yahrtzeit | 14 Shevat (next occurs on February 1, 2026) |
| Buried | Mount of Olives,Israel |
| Residence | Brooklyn, NY |
| Semikhah | RabbiEliezer Yehuda Finkel, at theMir Yeshiva in Jerusalem |
Aryeh Moshe Eliyahu Kaplan (Hebrew:אריה משה אליהו קפלן; October 23, 1934 – January 28, 1983)[1][2] was an AmericanOrthodoxrabbi, author, and translator best known for hisLiving Torah edition of theTorah and extensiveKabbalistic commentaries. He became well-known as a prolific writer and was lauded as an original thinker. His wide-ranging literary output, inclusive of introductory pamphlets on Jewish beliefs, andphilosophy written at the request ofNCSY are often regarded as significant factors in the growth of thebaal teshuva movement.[3][4][5]
Aryeh Kaplan was born inthe Bronx,New York City, to Samuel[6] and Fannie[7] (née Lackman) Kaplan[8][9] of theSefardiRecanati family fromSalonika,Greece.[2] His mother died on December 31, 1947, when he was 13, and his two younger sisters, Sandra and Barbara, were sent to a foster home. Kaplan was expelled from public school after acting out, leading him to grow up as a "street kid" in the Bronx.[10]
Kaplan did not grow up religious, and was known as "Len". His family had only a slight connection to Jewish practice, but he was encouraged to sayKaddish for his mother. On his first day at theminyan, Henoch Rosenberg, a 14-year-oldKlausenburger Hosid, realized that Len was out of place—he was not wearingtefillin or opening asiddur—and befriended him. Henoch Rosenberg and his siblings taught KaplanHebrew, and within a few days, Kaplan was learningChumash.[10]
When he was 15, Kaplan enrolled atYeshiva Torah Vodaas, and at age 18 (from January 1953 until June 1953) was among "a small cadre of talmidim" selected to help RabbiSimcha Wasserman openYeshiva Ohr Elchonon, a new yeshiva in Los Angeles.[11]
After his time in Los Angeles, Kaplan had a few small jobs including teaching at a Hebrew school in the Bronx and at Beth Torah inRichmond, Virginia (February 1955).[12]
In January 1956, Kaplan went to Israel to study atthe Mir in Jerusalem. That year, he receivedsemikhah (rabbinic ordination) from some of Israel's foremostposkim, includingYitzhak HaLevi Herzog andEliezer Yehuda Finkel.[13]
Upon returning from Israel in August of 1956, Kaplan became a Hebrew teacher at Eliahu Academy inLouisville, Kentucky.[14] and beginning in the 1957 fall semester studied atUniversity of Louisville, where he joinedSigma Pi Sigma, the Woodcock Society, andPhi Kappa Phi and eventually completed his bachelor's degree in physics on June 11, 1961.[15] While in Louisville, he met Tobie Goldstein, whom he married on June 13, 1961, and with whom he had nine children.[9][16]
Kaplan then moved toHyattsville, Maryland, in 1961 to study physics at theUniversity of Maryland and begin his first professional position as a research scientist at theNational Bureau of Standards'sFluid Mechanics Division, where he was in charge ofmagnetohydrodynamics research. Kaplan earned hisM.S. degree in physics from University of Maryland in 1963.[9] After graduating, Kaplan remained at University of Maryland as aNational Science Foundation fellow[17] through the fall semester of 1964.[18][19][9]
In 1965, Kaplan switched careers and began practicing as a rabbi. In his bookEncounters, Kaplan wrote that when asked why he switched from his scientific career to the rabbinate, he said "God had a mission for me".[20] His career here divides between pulpit roles initially, and other roles thereafter when based inBrooklyn, New York.Kaplan is mentioned inIgros Moshe: he asked of and received a response fromMoshe Feinstein regarding the matter of permitting/enabling a youth minyan to which parents would drive children on Shabbos.[21]
In 1971 Kaplan moved toBrooklyn, New York, where he lived until the end of his life (1983) .[9] Kaplan did not hold any positions there as a pulpit rabbi, but had many other roles which involved, chiefly, writing and editing religious publications:[9]
In the 1970s, Kaplan served in the unofficial capacity of the spiritual advisor for NCSY's Brooklyn region. He would converse with teenagers and answer their questions, whether in his home or at drawn-out NCSY conventions where "Aryeh Kaplan was the last adult standing."[3]
He would also deliver lectures at his home in Kensington, which many locals would regularly attend.[3]
He also served as the rabbinic consultant for the play "Yentl", after the director met him on theStaten Island Ferry. When asked about his association with a play containing nudity and a woman dressed as a man, Kaplan was quoted to have said "It is an abomination, but so what?"[32]
Kaplan was involved with NCSY as an author, speaker, and spiritual mentor.
Pinchas Stolper's wrote in his introduction toThe Aryeh Kaplan Anthology how he "discovered" Kaplan:[2]
I first encountered this extraordinary individual when by chance I spotted his article on "Immortality in the Soul" in "Intercom," the journal of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists, and was taken by his unusual ability to explain a difficult topic - one usually reserved for advanced scholars, a topic almost untouched previously in English - with such simplicity that it could be understood by any intelligent reader. It was clear to me that his special talent could fill a significant void in English Judaica. I always counted as one of my greatest z'chusim (a spiritual merit granted by God) to have had the privilege of "discovering" Rabbi Kaplan. And once we met, we became lifelong friends.When I invited Rabbi Kaplan to write on the concept of Tefillin for the Orthodox Union's National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY), he completed the 96-page manuscript of God, Man and Tefillin with sources and footnotes from the Talmud, Midrash and Zohar - in less than 2 weeks. The book - masterful, comprehensive, inspiring yet simple - set a pattern which was to characterize all of his succeeding works.
Kaplan became involved with Breslov through RabbiZvi Aryeh Rosenfeld. In 1973, Rabbi Kaplan translated "Rebbe Nachman’s Wisdom", one of Breslov's most important works, into English on Rabbi Zvi Rosenfeld's request.[33] Kaplan also translated and annotated two other books:Until the Mashiach: The Life of Rabbi Nachman, a day-to-day account of Rebbe Nachman's life, andRabbi Nachman's Tikkun (based on theTikkun HaKlali).
Kaplan was also involved in preservingRabbi Nachman of Breslov's grave. In 1979, the government inUman was planning on demolishing the cemetery containing Rabbi Nachman's grave so they could build housing over it. RabbisMichel Dorfman and Noson Maimon of Breslov contactedRabbi Moshe Sherer ofAgudath Israel of America, who connected them withRabbi Pinchas Teitz, who then introduced them to Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. "Using a manual typewriter, Kaplan put together a presentation there on the spot with maps of Ukraine to show exact longitude and latitude". Rabbi Teitz then sent the presentation toRobert Lipshutz and less than two weeks later afterJimmy Carter met withLeonid Brezhnev at the Strategic Arms Limitation Conference in Vienna, the Soviet ambassador to the U.S. stated that "the Kremlin has decided to honor the plan as originally scheduled, except for Bilinsky Street. That yard will remain untouched." and it was declared an "international shrine."[34][35][36][37][38]
Kaplan produced works on topics as varied asprayer,Jewish marriage andmeditation. His writing incorporated ideas from across the spectrum ofRabbinic literature,Kabbalah,[39] andHasidut, all without ignoring science.[40][41][42] The concise and detail-orientated character of his works have been described as reflective of his physicist training.[43] 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."[44]
From 1976 onward, Kaplan worked to translateMe'am Lo'ez (Torah Anthology), which was originally written inLadino and in time edited forHebrew (1967). Kaplan was described as working with his typewriter, "the Me’am Loez in Ladino on one side of him and the Hebrew version on the other side, and he'd look from one to the other and back again, comparing and contrasting and typing away furiously the entire time."[3] Shortly before his death, he completedThe Living Torah, an original translation of theFive Books of Moses and theHaftarot.
Kaplan was described by RabbiPinchas Stolper, his original sponsor, as never fearing to speak his mind. "He saw harmony betweenscience and Judaism, where many others saw otherwise. He put forward creative and original ideas and hypotheses, all the time anchoring them in classical works ofrabbinic literature."[citation needed]
Kaplan died at his home of a heart attack on January 28, 1983, at the age of 48.[16] He was buried at theMount of Olives Jewish Cemetery inJerusalem.[45]
Kaplan'sLiving Torah was posthumously followed by a work written by others for the rest of theBible,The Living Nach (published in 3 volumes in the 1990s).
His works continue to be read, and his extensive references are used as a resource.[46]
His works have been translated intoCzech,French,Hungarian,Modern Hebrew,Portuguese,Russian,German andSpanish.
In 2021, NCSY republished Kaplan's works.[47]
TheAryeh Kaplan Academy day school in Louisville, Kentucky, is named in honor of Kaplan.[48]
| Title | Release Date |
|---|---|
| The Living Torah | June 1, 1981 |
| The Handbook of Jewish Thought [Volume 1] | 1979 |
| The Handbook of Jewish Thought – Volume 2 | 1992 |
| Torah Anthology (Me'am Lo'ez Series) | June 1, 1984 |
| Made in Heaven: A Jewish Wedding Guide | June 1, 1983 |
| Tefillin | 1975 |
| Love Means Reaching Out | 1977 |
| The Real Messiah? A Jewish Response to Missionaries | June 1, 1973 |
| If You Were God | 1983 |
| Meditation and Kabbalah | Jan 15, 1986 |
| Jewish Meditation: A Practical Guide | 1985 |
| Meditation and the Bible | June 1, 1978 |
| Innerspace: Introduction to Kabbalah, Meditation and Prophecy | June 1, 1991 |
| Waters of Eden: The Mystery of the Mikvah | 1976 |
| Sabbath: Day of Eternity | 1976 |
| The Aryeh Kaplan Reader: The Gift He Left Behind : Collected Essays on Jewish Themes from the Noted Writer and Thinker | June 1, 1986 |
| Tzitzith: A Thread of Light | 1993 |
| Jerusalem, Eye of the Universe | 1976 |
| The Infinite Light | 1981 |
| Until the Mashiach: The Life of Rabbi Nachman | May 6, 1985 |
| The Light Beyond: Adventures in Hassidic Thought | June 1, 1981 |
| A Call to the Infinite | Dec 1, 1986 |
| Faces and Facets | Jan 1, 1993 |
| Rabbi Nachman's Stories | Apr 1, 1985 |
| Encounters | Jun 1, 1990 |
| Maimonides' Principles | 1984 |
| Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation | March 15, 2004 |
| The Bahir | September 1, 1990 |
| Chasidic Masters | 1991 |
While a graduate student studying physics at the University of Maryland, Rabbi Kaplan published two academic papers:
In 1952, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman .. to found a yeshivah in Los Angeles.. asked Rabbi Gedaliah Schorr .. Torah vodaath, to give him a small cadre of talmidim. .. Nisson Wolpin, Meier Weinberg, and Aryeh Kaplan
Kaplan, Leonard M., Hyattsville, Physics
One of America's greatest experts on kabbalah was Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983). And while he lived past age forty, it was not by much. He clearly had begun studying kabbalah before the age of forty.
