Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1934–1983) did more than almost anyone to put the depth of Jewish thought into readable English. Trained as a physicist — he took a master's in the field and worked as a research scientist on magnetohydrodynamics before leaving science for the rabbinate in 1965 — he brought an unusual clarity to subjects that had long been closed to English readers. His Living Torah, with its maps, diagrams and extensive notes, remains among the most used English translations of the Chumash. He opened the classic Ladino commentary Me'am Lo'ez to the English-speaking world as The Torah Anthology, wrote the Handbook of Jewish Thought and the wedding guide Made in Heaven, and produced the translations of Kabbalistic and meditative texts that shaped a generation of returning Jews. He died at forty-eight, having written more in two decades than most scholars manage in a lifetime.
