Customer Reviews

The Aryeh Kaplan Reader: The Gift He Left Behind : Collected Essays on Jewish Themes from the Noted Writer and Thinker (Artscroll Mesorah Series)

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This excellent collection of essays by R' Aryeh Kaplan (zichrono lebracha) includes three categories: "The Past, Present and Future", "The Festivals", and "G-d, Israel and Torah." I especially enjoyed reading the last category of essays, as it pertained to more traditional Aryeh Kapln topics such as the soul, afterlife, G-d, and His interaction with people. The articles are all well footnoted, and everything Aryeh Kaplan talks about is Well grounded through ancient Jewish Literature. What a great book!!

The late Aryeh Kaplan was a pioneer in many areas of Jewish thought, a brilliant and original thinker. He for instance was one of the first in modern times to write about Jewish Meditation . He was an especially effective expounder of Jewish concepts and thought .In these essays he writes about the Holidays, and other aspects of the Tradition with his usual skill and insight.

Aryeh Kaplan was a Talmid Chacham and a pioneer in Jewish thought. He wrote an incredible number of essays explaining fundamental concepts and ideas of Judaism in a clear and convincing way. He was also one of the pioneers in the whole Jewish Meditation scene. A mathematical genius he also used his knowledge of secular learning to enhance his understanding and our understanding of the world. This collection is a sample of his thought and as such is worthwhile. But Aryeh Kaplan is the kind of thinker and writer who one should know by reading a wide variety of his works.

This book is a collection of Kaplan's earlier essays; I suspect that he had not reached his intellectual peak at the time he wrote them. Some of Kaplan's essays, such as the one on extraterrestial life, are as interesting as the other reviewer thinks. Others struck me as dry and lifeless, as if Kaplan was just mechanically stringing together others' thoughts.

I enjoy anything Kaplan writes. It was a surprise to come across this book. thanks

This is a collection of essays written by one of the most brillant contempoary (he's died in 1983 but his work is still very comptempoary) Jewish schloars. In his clear concise style he explains complex Jewish topics. The topics range from Modern Technology and Shaboss, Paradoxes about God, and the Jewish perspective of Extraerrestrial life, to name a few.