Wisdom Learned at the Feet of Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan

The late Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan is best remembered as the father of Reconstructionism, a movement that regards Judaism as “the evolving religious civilization of the Jewish people.”
But Kaplan’s life and work cannot be encapsulated in a single phrase. He was also a co-founder of the Young Israel movement in Orthodoxy and, with Rabbi Solomon Schechter, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. He was the founding rabbi of the first synagogue to install recreational facilities for its congregants and its community, a “shul with a pool.” His daughter Judith was the first young woman in America to be called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah.
Kaplan, who died in 1983 at the age of 102, passed along his vision and wisdom to the countless number of young men and women who were his students. One of them was our own Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, senior rabbi emeritus of Kehillat Israel, a Reconstructionist congregation in Pacific Palisades. Kaplan was 90 when Reuben was invited “to sit in his apartment, study Jewish texts, and discuss his vision of contemporary Jewish life with him,” as Reuben recalls in his book “A Year With Mordecai Kaplan: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion” (Jewish Publication Society), which has a foreword by Rabbi David A. Teutsch.
“It is almost impossible to adequately capture the remarkable impact that Mordecai Menahem Kaplan has had on the religious and communal life of the American Jewish community,” writes Reuben. “His unapologetic critique of the flaws and failures of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jewry to capture the minds and hearts of American Jews in the first two decades of the twentieth century led to his sweeping visions for reconstructing and reimagining contemporary Jewish life.”
Strictly speaking, Reuben’s book is neither a history of Reconstructionism nor a biography of Mordecai Kaplan. Rather, Reuben presents Kaplan’s “wisdom, passion and insights” in a series of short Torah commentaries. Starting with Torah readings drawn from the gender-sensitive translation titled “The Contemporary Torah,” Reuben adds a short explanation of the text, quotations from Kaplan’s teachings and anecdotes from his own experiences as a congregational rabbi. He designed the book “to be read and used each week to help illuminate the Torah one portion at a time.”
Yet “A Year With Mordecai Kaplan” aspires to illuminate more than the received text of the Torah. Reuben also reminds us of Kaplan’s willingness to “challenge our assumptions about God, Torah, Israel, prayer, community, education, values, rituals, traditions, and every other aspect of what it means to live a contemporary Jewish life.” While Reuben casts his book in the classical rabbinical categories of P’shat (explanation) and D’rash (commentary), he urges us to see the sacred text in a wholly new light.
Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben offers what he has extracted from Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan’s teachings: “He understood that the fundamental human need for love and connection to others fuels every relationship, every act of kindness to strangers, every expression of compassion, and ultimately the very search for the meaning of our lives.”
By way of example, the very first entry is a quotation from Bereshit: “God said, ‘It is not good for the Human to be alone; I will make a fitting counterpart for him’ ” (Genesis 2:18). As Reuben points out, God is shown to acknowledge that the divine act of creation is not perfect and something crucial is missing: “The Torah suggests that each of us seeks a spiritual partner with whom to share our lives,” Reuben writes.
Then he offers what he has extracted from Kaplan’s teachings: “He understood that the fundamental human need for love and connection to others fuels every relationship, every act of kindness to strangers, every expression of compassion, and ultimately the very search for the meaning of our lives.” And he quotes Kaplan for the credo that “God is in the faith by which we overcome the fear of loneliness, of helplessness, of failure and of death.” And he concludes the entry by revealing his own anxiety: “I was as a young rabbi doing my best to be there for everyone who needed me, and at times I felt like I was just faking it.” His salvation turned out to be Didi, the woman who married him. “Her touch, her smile, her attentiveness, and her delight in others remind me over and over of the magic of making another person feel he or she matters.”
When we reach the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus — “Then Adonai said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.’ ” (Exodus 14:15) — Reuben sees a communal rather than a personal message. “[T]oo often we squander our time and credibility by continually talking about our intentions to help our communities rather than simply taking action,” he writes. From Kaplan’s writings, he extracts a passage about the uses of history: “Our past is not merely to supply wants but to create wants,” Kaplan wrote. As two examples of what Kaplan meant, he cites the founding of the State of Israel and his own father’s decision to leave Russia and join the “millions of immigrants who possessed the strength of character and faith in themselves to follow the American dream.”
One way to understand what is meant when Reconstructionism describes Judaism as a “religious civilization” is that it encompasses all aspects of human life. So, too, does Reuben write about topics on which the Torah itself is mostly or entirely silent, including animal rescue, gay and lesbian marriage, the Boy Scouts, the Vietnam War, the Equal Rights Amendment, Nelson Mandela and the reason why a rabbi might go to church on Christmas Eve as an affirmation of his Jewish values.
The point is made in the stirring words of Kaplan himself: “The search for truth is hampered by the universal tendency to treat as the last word what is really only the first word in any revelation or discovery.” For Reuben, as for Kaplan, the words of the Torah are only the starting point for understanding and fulfilling what it means to be a Jew in the world.
Buy “A Year With Mordecai Kaplan: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion” on Amazon here.
Jonathan Kirsch, author and publishing attorney, is the book editor of the Jewish Journal.
JJ Inside The Print
It’s crazy to think about it. With a predatory regime like Iran on its doorstep and more than 100,000 terror missiles pointed at its citizens,...
As an undergraduate at UC San Diego, I was active in our campus pro-Israel group. I loved every minute of it, even if it meant...
“Do you ever wonder just what God requires? You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires?” — Bob Dylan “You call...
I’ve always had a low threshold for pain. Whenever I bump into a wall or get a little cut, I act as if I’ve been...
Fifteen years ago, the Journal published a story about cellphone use in synagogue. Some parents justified the practice, as they needed to call “Rosa” during...
Last week in New York, I was the lone son of a British Methodist amid 1,800 Jews and people of other faiths at the Anti-Defamation...
When Brooke Goldstein was in her third year at Yeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, her graduation was almost...
When Republican impeachment lawyer Steven Castor and Republican representatives implied Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman might have dual loyalty to the Ukraine, many Jews cringed. After...
Israel is known as one of the world’s most vegetarian- and vegan-friendly countries. Perhaps it’s the abundance of fresh and delicious produce, Jewish dietary laws...
Writing a book about Israel can be frustrating for many reasons, the first of which is that it constantly needs to be updated. Reality changes...
On Sept. 18, one day after election day, the numbers came in — and they said nothing new. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud didn’t...
One verse, five voices. Edited by Salvador Litvak, Accidental Talmudist And he dreamed, and behold! a ladder set up on the ground and its top reached...
The word on the street is that polenta must be stirred constantly while it cooks, similar to risotto. There are even automatic polenta stirrers made...
A Jewish Sephardic vocalist backed by an Arab Moroccan string ensemble formed the backdrop to a unique event at the Beverly Hills Hotel when San...
Liz Vogel, the Los Angeles executive director of the nonprofit Facing History and Ourselves, recalls the moments in her young adulthood where she experienced anti-Semitism. And...
In her new book, “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Wendy Wood, a professor of...
Some may wonder why actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish titled her latest Netflix stand-up comedy special “Black Mitzvah” and opens with a rap to the...
Producer Elisabeth (Lizzie) Bentley, the spearheading force behind director Terrence Malick’s new biopic, “A Hidden Life,” first became aware of the film’s protagonist, Franz Jägerstätter,...
Two things set apart “Mistletoe & Menorahs” from the other holiday romantic comedies airing on Lifetime this month. As the title suggests, it celebrates both...
As Shirley Maisel, the loud and overbearing Jewish mother of Joel and former mother-in-law of the titular standup comedian in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Caroline...
With phrases such as “Move forward,” “Listen carefully,” “Make art from your heart” and “Woman, speak up,” Sara Erenthal invites observers of her art to...
Over his long and remarkable career, Theodore Bikel achieved the status of living treasure. He is perhaps best known for the roles he played on...
“Theodore Bikel’s The City of Light” is based on a short story by Theodore Bikel but the book’s author is his widow, Aimee Ginsburg Bikel. Born...
Drew Leach was completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Arizona during the Second Lebanon War in Israel in 2006. On her campus, she...
A unique women-owned business is helping charities while promoting Hanukkah this year. Amanda Foley was busy working as a casting director in Los Angeles, while...
Sylvia Bar died Oct. 26 at 92. Survived by daughter Jeanine; son Malchi; 1 grandchild. Hillside Tully Becker died Oct. 9 at 86. Survived by...
I love receiving gift cards, but I do feel a little guilty giving them because I’m afraid the recipient will presume I didn’t put any thought...
It is the central irony of American life that the national holiday about gratitude anchors the biggest shopping frenzy of the year. Here’s what I...
Milken Community Schools held its third annual community-wide challah bake, during which 500 people prepared challah for Shabbat. Attendees at the Nov. 14 event at...
FRI DEC 6 Zamru Friday Night Shomrei Torah Synagogue holds Zamru Friday Night, a unique, musically rich kabbalat Shabbat service and dinner. Cantor Jackie Rafii...
Responding to Rosner I believe that Israel will never experience peace, and global anti-Semitism will not be reduced, until there is a real home for...