The Radical American Judaism of Mordecai M. Kaplan

Preface

xiii P R E FA C E I have been studying Mordecai Kaplan, his life and his thought, continually since 1972. One might reasonably ask, as my wife often has, how someone could remain with one subject for so long. Part of the answer lies in the wealth of material Kaplan left behind. In addition to the books and articles that appeared during his lifetime, there is a mass of unpublished material. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia , which I have been affiliated with, houses a very large Kaplan archive, containing box after box of everything from sermon notes to lecture notes, personal letters to comments on the Torah, and much else in between.1 But beyond the almost infinite paper trail, other, more potent reasonsdrawmetoKaplan .Ihaveformuchofthepastsixdecadesstruggled to define the exact meaning of my Jewishness. Midway through this journey, Kaplan came along. He told me, both in person and through his books and articles, that being a Jew was not primarily about accepting a particular belief system. Rather, being a Jew was a matter of biography and community. “Belonging is more important than believing,” as Reconstructionists like to say.2 His perspective has been revelatory and liberating. If my relationship to the Jewish people is a matter of biography —if my Jewishness, in other words, is a question of my life story and the life story of the Jewish people—then I am free to evaluate any and all traditional beliefs and reject what makes no sense to me. There is no way in which my being a Jew could be undermined. Within the liberation that Kaplan has fostered, there are other intellectual and philosophical issues that attract me to him. For many years xiv Preface I have been interested in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche; his ideas about “overcoming,” or personal transcendence in particular, have been enormously inspiring for me. After studying Kaplan for some time, it dawnedonmethathisnotionsofsalvationandpersonalfulfillmentwere strikingly similar to Nietzsche’s. Some years later, I also discovered a connection between Kaplan and Ralph Waldo Emerson, which paralleled my interest in Nietzsche. Despite their major differences, Nietzsche and Emerson share some important convictions, particularly the notions of fulfillment and selftranscendence .3 Kaplan and Emerson and their ideas of self-fulfillment all fit beautifully together as a way to live a Jewish life. Kaplan actually crafted a prayer based on an essay by Emerson,4 and as we shall see, he intended to insert this Emerson prayer into the Sabbath morning services . Thus, as a Kaplanian, I could pray from Emerson. Kaplan additionally attracted me because of his help in resolving certain theological problems, which went back to my study with Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–72).5 In my youth, I studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary; Heschel was my professor in Jewish philosophy for three consecutive years. Although the curriculum called for us to study medieval Jewish philosophy, we only studied Heschel. Man Is Not Alone, Heschel’s first theological work, had just appeared. I remember quite distinctly our discussions about the matter of wonder, radical amazement, and the mystery of the human condition and of the universe altogether. I was enthralled. After the mystery, in Heschel’s words, came what he called “the meaning beyond the mystery.” But, enthralled though I was, the meaning beyond the mystery eluded me. I could never understand what Heschel meant. Many years later, Kaplan’s naturalistic theology came to my rescue, resolving much of my confusion on this and other religious problems.6 As Kaplan helped me decode ideas that had stumped me for so long, I felt an urgent need to understand the way in which Kaplan related to Heschel. To my amazement, I found that Kaplan was instrumental in bringing Heschel to the Jewish Theological Seminary. I also discovered a prayer that Kaplan had crafted based on a Heschel essay. Kaplan, it seemed, was exhorting me to pray from Heschel, just as he had urged me to pray from Emerson. Sometime afterward, as if some power were Preface xv guiding me, while researching the papers of Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, Kaplan ’sprimarydiscipleandhisson-in-law,Idiscoveredanearlyloose-leaf prayer book of the Society for the Advancement for Judaism, Kaplan’s original congregation.7 To my astonishment, I found that the Emerson prayer and the Heschel prayer were on facing pages. Heschel and Emerson , united by Kaplan in his Sabbath prayer book—I was moved to tears.8 As I explain...