Aryeh Kaplan

On February 19, 1965, Kaplan moved to Mason City, Iowa, where he became the Rabbi of Adas Israel.[22][23]

On August 7, 1966, Kaplan became the Rabbi at B'nai Sholom, a Conservative synagogue[24] in Blountville, Tennessee. He held the position through 1967.[25][26]

In 1967, Kaplan became the Rabbi at Adath Israel (now known as Adath Shalom), a Conservative synagogue in Dover, New Jersey. He kept this position through 1969.[11]

Kaplan then moved to Albany, New York, where he became the Rabbi at Ohav Shalom, a Conservative synagogue.[27] During this time, he 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.[11][28][29][30]

In 1971 Kaplan moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he lived until the end of his life.[11] Kaplan didn't hold any rabbinic positions in Brooklyn, but had many other positions which involved writing and editing religious publications:[11]

• 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 Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America's Jewish Life magazine from 1973 to 1974,[31] and
• Director of publishing at the NCSY from 1974 to 1975

He also served as the rabbinic consultant for the play "Yentl"[32]

Kaplan's books on Judaism and meditation were written between 1976 and 1982.

Kaplan's 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.[37] 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.[38]) Kaplan wrote three well-known books on Jewish meditation. These books seek to 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.

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.

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.[5] His works continue to attract a wide readership, and are studied by both novices and the newly religious, as well as by scholars, where his extensive footnotes provide a unique resource.[39]

• The Living Torah, Rabbi Kaplan's best-known work, is a widely used, scholarly[39] (and user friendly[5]) 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.[40] 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)
• "The Handbook of Jewish Thought," produced early in his career, is an encyclopedic and systematic treatment of Judaism's fundamental beliefs[41] in two volumes, the first of which was published in Kaplan's lifetime.[42] 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. A chapter titled "Creation,"[43] in which Rabbi Kaplan "presents evolution as part of the basic tenets of Judaism,"[44] was omitted from publication.[45]
• "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[36] 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, was published posthumously in 1983. Moving beyond superficiality, the slender book encourages the reader to ponder topics concerning the nature of being and Divine providence.[46]
• 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.

While a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Rabbi Kaplan published two 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. Bibcode:1964NCim...34..655O. doi:10.1007/BF02750008. S2CID 121217695.
• 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 (11): 2194–2205. Bibcode:1967JMP.....8.2194K. doi:10.1063/1.1705141. Archived from the original on 2013-04-11.