1934 CE–1983 CE · Modern · Brooklyn (NY)
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1934–1983) was the most influential English-language popularizer of authentic Jewish mysticism in the modern era. Born in the Bronx and educated at Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn and Jerusalem, he held a master's degree in nuclear physics — an unusual combination that shaped his lucid, rigorous prose style. He served briefly as a congregational rabbi in Mason City and Dover before devoting himself full-time to writing.
In barely a decade he produced over fifty books, including the *Bahir* and *Sefer Yetzirah* translations with commentary, *Jewish Meditation*, *Meditation and the Bible*, *Meditation and Kabbalah*, *The Living Torah* (English Torah translation), and a four-volume biography-anthology of R. Nachman of Bratslav. Through his work, Kabbalah and Hasidic meditation entered English-speaking Jewish life as serious scholarship rather than occult curiosity. He died at 48.
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Modern center of multiple Hasidic dynasties (Lubavitch in Crown Heights, Satmar in Williamsburg, Bobov in Borough Park) plus Modern Orthodox communities.
Brooklyn (NY) · 1985
Accessible introduction to authentic Jewish meditative traditions — silent meditation, contemplation of Hebrew letters, hitbonenut, hitbodedut.
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Brooklyn (NY) · 1979
Translation and extensive commentary on the foundational early-medieval Kabbalistic work.
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Brooklyn (NY) · 1981
English translation of the Torah with extensive notes drawn from classical and Chasidic sources.
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