Tuesday, February 14, 2012

One of the greatest contemporary classics


Someone put it online (not me!):

Aryeh Kaplan - Jewish Meditation, a Practical Guide

15 comments:

  1. Check out what the frumteens moderator writes here:

    http://classic.frumteens.com/topic.php?topic_id=4166&forum_id=29&topic_title=rabbi+kaplan+ZL&forum_title=Torah+Learning+I&M=0&S=1

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  2. And here:

    http://classic.frumteens.com/topic.php?topic_id=8946&forum_id=13&Topic_Title=kabbalah&forum_title=Basic+Judaism

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  3. If you don't see it, it is because you do not want to see it. And if you do not want to see it, you won't see it even if I point it out. Ha'ksil ba'choshech holech.

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  4. from a different anonymous poster...

    Clearly you posted this link because you hold that it isn't stealing from Rav Kaplan's estate.

    Could you please elaborate on why that is so?

    Would you have posted the link if he would have been alive?

    thanks!

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  5. I think anyone reading the pdf would want to own the sefer!

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  6. Rabbi Bechhofer
    Can you please respond to these intriguing revelations about Rabbi Kaplan's earlier rabbinic history?

    http://kavvanah.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/lost-rabbi-aryeh-kaplan-part-ii/

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  7. Rabbi Kornreich,

    Since you pointed me at that post, I need to ask you, is this true?

    R. Aryeh Kaplan’s position on the age of the earth is well known and often cited. Indeed, he has already been attacked for it by Dovid Kornreich, R. Moshe Meiselman’s acolyte.

    I hope it is not.

    As to what RAK zt"l zy"a did or said earlier in his career - in Mason City, IA! - I cannot speak for him. Things were different in the old days. לא מחשבותיו מחשבותי ואילו ידעתיו הייתיו.

    But כלל זה נקוט בידך:
    גיטין דף פג/א
    אין משיבין את הארי[ה] לאחר מיתה

    BTW, one of the people I very much admire, Rabbi Chaim Twerski of Chicago, was acquainted with RAK and told me that he was the genuine
    article.

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  8. I think anyone reading the pdf would want to own the sefer!

    That could be used to justify putting any book online, no? It would seem to be the owner's prerogative to make that decision.

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  9. Give me a Rabbi Bechofer over the frum teens moderator any day.

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  10. Rabbi Kornreich,
    I can't vouch for anything Rabbi Kaplan did or didn't do as a young man, but if we investigate prior statements by some public figures, we might find unsavory details.

    For instance, I see that you have publicly suggested "suicide" as a potential solution for orthodox Jews with homosexual inclinations. Your post on this appears to have undergone quite a good deal of editing since its original appearance, but your decision to publicly muse about this issue would cause some to question your overall character, as well as the advisability of submitting young, vulnerable minds to your instruction.

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  11. For instance, I see that you have publicly suggested "suicide" as a potential solution for orthodox Jews with homosexual inclinations.

    It depends on what you mean by inclination. I was referring to an irrepressible inclination. I was in no way suggesting that every Orthodox Jew with SSA seriously contemplate suicide.

    And besides, I was duly called to task for it, was I not?
    I don't see why Rabbi Kaplan should be spared from a probing inquiry about any previous heterodox activities.
    I know things were different back then, but I think it is important to know if he had any mentors who approved of these activities or he was acting on his own daas Torah.

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  12. "I don't see why Rabbi Kaplan should be spared from a probing inquiry about any previous heterodox activities.
    I know things were different back then, but I think it is important to know if he had any mentors who approved of these activities or he was acting on his own daas Torah."

    I have no understanding at all of why this is important to know.

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  13. I am very disappointed by whoever digitized the book. Does he or she not think that Rabbi Kaplan z'l has left over a very large family, an almonah and many grandchildren who could certainly use royalty money? Yes, maybe some people will buy it because they saw it online, but it's still a crime.

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