Articles by Ariel Caplan

Editor’s Thoughts: Must Eliminating Otherness Be a Selfless Endeavor?

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
The Torah commands us, “ve-halakhta bi-derakhav” – “you shall walk in His ways,”[i] and Rambam interprets this as a call to imitatio dei (imitating God).[ii] Elsewhere, he writes that God cannot be defined positively, but must instead be understood based on what He is ... Read more →

Androginos, Modern Medicine, and the Difficulty of Entry into the Gender Binary

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
“Congratulations, it’s a…” The sentence welcoming a new baby into the world rolls off the tongue; the last word, eagerly anticipated, reveals whether “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” A single chromosomal variation carries significant ... Read more →

An Interview with Rabbi Zevulun Charlop

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
AC: What do you remember about the Rabbis’ March that your father helped organize to protest the Allies’ inaction regarding the massacre of European Jewry? Do you think that the Jewish community should utilize similar methods of activism to support the causes of other oppressed groups ... Read more →

Motivations, Populations, and the Essence of Humility: Ariel Caplan Responds

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
[i] I would like to first thank Ms. Gadish for her well-thought-out and carefully composed response to my article. As an enthusiastic participant in milhamtah shel Torah (the war of Torah study), I eagerly welcome the most passionate criticisms against my article, “Rav Lakhen Benot ... Read more →

An Interview with Rabbi Yosef Adler

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
AC: You function both as an educator/administrator in a flourishing yeshivah high school, the Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC), and as the rabbi of the relatively large Congregation Rinat Yisrael. Both of these sound like daunting commitments; together they are undoubtedly difficult to ... Read more →

Rav Lakhen Benot Yisrael: Humility and Rabba-nut

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
[i] The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.  To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who ... Read more →

Creation and Evolution: Toward a Methodology of Addressing Challenges to Faith

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
BY: Ariel Caplan “The conflict between ‘religion’ and ‘evolution’ has outlived its usefulness and it is high time it was allowed a quiet demise. […] We must learn to lose our fear of evolution.”[i] The acceptance of evolution as the best explanation for the diversification of ... Read more →

“Anu Mattirin Lehitpallel im ha-Avaryanim”

By Ariel Caplan | Comment ()
A Tale of Blessing Blasphemers, Praying Predators, Devout Desecrators, and the Internal Israelite BY: Ariel Caplan This piece is dedicated to Mr. Joseph Cooperman, a”h,[i] who taught me that the Jew who drives to shul on Shabbat is still a Jew. If you are an Orthodox Jew hailing from Teaneck, ... Read more →