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Mordecai Kaplan, Present-Day Inspiration Periences Which Are Peculiar to the Jewish People

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Mordecai Kaplan, Present-Day Inspiration Periences Which Are Peculiar to the Jewish People that the choice didn't have to be made. And we claimed reception of complete Torah at Sinai by Moses), there that others were not clear! is no problem with one's Jewish identity. Jewish belief and practice can be synthesized in a beautiful Jewish Dr. Kaplan was not a hero to all the students all the time. life-style that many Jews are satisfied with today. How- Some of them tried to show him up in his text course — ever, when I began to question and doubt these beliefs, usually on the midrash. They drew from an admirable I felt that there was nowhere to turn but to abandon fund of knowledge in the attempt to prove that Dr. my religion. Kaplan's interpretations were strained, that others had not attempted to do for their generation what he was Kaplan provides me with an attractive solution to this attempting to do for his. Dr. Kaplan's answers were not dilemma. By showing how Judaism has gone through always convincing but his approach was, in the main, radical changes in its history, he demonstrates that admirable. He was gracious; he had anticipated such there is no one set of doctrines which has been held by criticisms; he was rarely rattled. In his philosophical all Jews at all times. course (on Soterics in our day) he was occasionally Existentially, Judaism is the religious civilization of the caught by surprise by students who thought him not Jewish People. As an existential living reality, Judaism daring enough, and only a half-way naturalist. "Not has had to undergo change, with every marked change so; no one could be more of a naturalist than I" or so in the situation of the Jewish People. (Judaism Without Dr. Kaplan seemed to be saying. His critics were not Supernaturalism, pp. 15-16). always satisfied, but always enlightened. And especially in his course on Homiletics. To many of us nothing This notion of Judaism as a constantly changing religious could be easier than giving a sermon; one picks a text civilization has been a strong intellectual influence on me. and finds a moral, nothing to it. Nothing till we tried As a result, I did my Ph.D. thesis on the philosophical it and learned about our ineptness. Dr. Kaplan probed, issues involved in reinterpretation, a procedure very asked questions and then finally ordered "Th-ink." important to Kaplan. In this dissertation, I discuss how It was a tribute to Dr. Kaplan that he thought that we reinterpretation plays an essential role in the historical could develop good ideas by determination. development of religious civilization as well as in our le- gal system. Just as legal texts (such as the Constitution) It remains to be noted that many of us were culture- are reinterpreted in view of changing social needs, so broken at the Seminary and learned how to behave, Scriptural texts are reinterpreted in the light of changing not the least from Dr. Kaplan who was grieved when conditions. Kaplan himself sometimes uses this analogy, we were needlessly noisy or tardy. "Better never than when he talks of amending the Torah as one would amend late," he once told us in desperation. But our greatest a Constitution. lesson came from the manner in which he dealt with some of his severest critics. He invited them to his home Judaism is still changing today and, in the main treated them as equal partners in the Kaplan stresses this notion of Judaism as a continually quest for truth. evolving religious civilization. The particularity of Jewish religion derives from the ex- Mordecai kaplan, present-day inspiration periences which are peculiar to the Jewish People. That particularity has to be preserved in the process of bring- Henry David Morris ing Jewish religion into live contact with the contempor- ary universe of values. This can be accomplished by taking One way of measuring the impact of Kaplan's ideas is into account the entire mass of the traditional ideas and to study the way it has influenced students like myself practices which belong to the spiritual heritage of the at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College. There are Jewish People and reinterpreting them from the stand- several students who had Jewish backgrounds similar point of what are felt to be the most urgent moral and to mine. I went to an orthodox yeshiva from kinder- spiritual needs in our day. (Kaplan, Judaism as a Modern garten through ninth grade. There I acquired a strong Religious Civilization, Reconstructionist Pamphlet, p.9). interest in studying the Torah and Talmud and a love for Jewish traditions and Jewish festivals. But it was This process of reinterpretation of traditional ideas and understood that there was a particular set of theolo- practices, which has occurred throughout Jewish history, gical and historical beliefs that a Jew to be a Jew must challenges Orthodox Judaism's claim as the only authen- adhere to and a certain set of practices that a Jew to be tic beater of the Jewish religious tradition. Although the a Jew must keep. To the extent that one feels comfort- Orthodox have exclusively glorified Rabbinic Judaism, able with these beliefs (e.g. divine authorship of Torah, the Pharisaic revolution of Rabbinic Judaism need not 149 II turning away numbers of Jews who wish to participate r in Jewish life. But Kaplan is tolerant of differing de- grees of Jewish observance. In his ideal Jewish commu- nity, all Jews are welcome. Kaplan wants Judaism to be pleasurable The ideal of the organic Jewish community embodies a broad notion of Judaism. Judaism encompasses the religion, but also the art, music, and literature of the Jewish people. This sets his approach apart from that which is traditional to Reform and Conservative Judaism. Kaplan is sensitive to the total needs of Jews. For example, Kaplan is concerned with the problem of excessive leisure time. i With the progressive mechanization of the daily routine, with the problem of banishing boredom becoming ever more acute, the creative use of leisure is coming to be the main problem in the art of living. If people knew j- what to do with themselves of an evening, without hav- ing to resort to card playing or any of the commercial- ized methods of time-killing, the whole of human life would take a more hopeful turn. (Kaplan, The Organic i Jewish Community, Reconstructionist Pamphlet, p.5). Within the organic Jewish community, Kaplan sees a solution to this problem of excessive leisure. This com- munity could produce a flow of Jewish self-expression in art, music, and literature. In addition, the Jewish cal- have been the final change and adaption of Judaism. endar is one way a Jew can find "occasions for relaxa- Judaism has gone through many phases in its historical tion from his daily labors and anxieties, for festivity, development. Just as it has changed in the past, Judaism song, gladness, and mirth" (Kaplan, The Organic Jewish can continue to change today. Community, p. 6). Students at the RRC are trying to carry forward the idea of making Judaism more pleas- Students at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College urable. They have established a Jewish coffeehouse for haive been motivated by Kaplan's thought and example high school and college students. They have founded to develop their own innovations. For example, inspired an open classroom Hebrew school and designed its cur- by Kaplan's assertion that women must work to equalize riculum. They have organized community gatherings the status of women in Judaism, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso like Shabbat seders and retreats. created a ceremony celebrating the birth of a Jewish girl. (See "B'rit B'not Israel: Observations on Women Kaplan's views raise some questions and Reconstructionism" by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, Re- There is much work that needs to be done with Kaplan's | sponse, Summer 1973, pp. 101-105). program. Kaplan's God-concept (or concepts) are some- times inconsistent or circular and hence problematical. Kaplan'silexible view of Judaism has appeal not only to The following definition seems to include a vicious those who come from more traditional backgrounds, circle. but also to those who have minimal or no background in Judaism. A number of students at the RRC first came In brief, God is the Power in the cosmos that gives hu- into contact with Judaism in college through university man life the direction that enables the human being to courses in Jewish studies. They wanted to continue their reflect the image of God. Judaism Without Supernatur- studies in Judaism, to identify more as Jews, and to alism, p. 112). participate in the Jewish community. Coming from the Kaplan talks of living in two civilizations: American and college environment with its greater freedom, they are Jewish. This is a good attempt to deal with the identity not ready to lead the strictly regulated life of Orthodox problem of American Jews. However, in his glorification Judaism. When one insists on a previous commitment of American holidays, Kaplan goes too far. Celebrating as a prerequisite for membership, one is going to be and worshiping sancta of American democracy like the 150 flag or the Fourth of July seems out of place today, when out, we should not automatically disparage the women a criticism of democratic institutions seems in order. working for change. Kaplan has not engaged in the "doublethink" of the As for the honesty of the second model, on the one Conservative prayer in providing j-adically disparate hand, I know too many women eager for aliyot and English and Hebrew texts, with a prefaced apologia.
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