A Year with Mordecai Kaplan

You are invited to spend a year with the inspirational words, ideas, and counsel of the great twentieth-century thinker Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, through his meditations on the fifty-four weekly Torah portions and eleven Jewish holidays. A pioneer of ideas and actionteaching that Judaism is a civilization encompassing Jewish culture, art, and peoplehood; demonstrating how synagogues can be full centers for Jewish living (building one of the first shuls with a pool); and creating the first-ever bat mitzvah ceremony (for his daughter Judith)Kaplan transformed the landscape of American Jewry. Yet much of Kaplans rich treasury of ethical and spiritual thought is largely unknown. Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben, who studied closely with Kaplan, offers unique insight into Kaplans teachings about ethical relationships and spiritual fulfillment, including how to embrace godliness in everyday experience, our mandate to become agents of justice in the world, and the human ability to evolve personally and collectively. Quoting from the weeks Torah portion, Reuben presents Torah commentary, a related quotation from Kaplan, a reflective commentary integrating Kaplans understanding of the Torah text, and an intimate story about his family or communitys struggles and triumphsguiding twenty-first-century spiritual seekers of all backgrounds on how to live reflectively and purposefully every day.