Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan ztl with Dr. Russell Barber complete
Why Mi Yodeya Stack Exchange recommends it
Judaism Stack Exchange answerers point people to it as one of the few video recordings of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, citing his comments on meditative prayer and on permitted versus forbidden mystical practices.
Recommended by 1 people across 1 different months, 2012 to 2018.
What it is
A complete 1979 television interview in which Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan and Dr. Russell Barber discuss Jewish mysticism on WNBC-TV's The First Estate. It is a VHS recording uploaded in full as a single 11-minute video.
What people said
Recommends Seth J · 2012-08 · Mi Yodeya Stack Exchange · on “What makes prayer take so long? ”
At about 9 minutes into this video [this video] , R' Aryeh Kaplan, ZT"L, discusses how a meditative 'Amidah would be slower, and how this would afford the person praying the opportunity to connect to the Divine.
Cites Chaim Leib Halbert · 2013-07 · Mi Yodeya Stack Exchange · on “Did the prophets practice magic?”
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan talks about this difference in this interview [this video] from 1979. He says that mystical manipulations are dangerous in general, but there are permitted and forbidden means of doing so. The main difference is the desire to connect to Hashem. However, even regarding the "permitted" techniques, there are Kabbalistic sources that say these are permitted only in special situations, like when one receives a Divine command to do so. Black magic generally involved obvious idolatry, for example: Prostrating and praying in front of idolatrous images Meditating on and connecting oneself to names of impurity Gazing intently at idols, or even Gazing at and meditating on one's own mirror
Cites Dr. Shmuel · 2018-07 · Mi Yodeya Stack Exchange · on “Audio or video lectures of Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan zt"l”
For the original recording of the famed Age of The Universe speech which was given at the Midwinter Conference of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists on February 18, 1979 (later published in book form; see here [LINK] ), visit [LINK] Here is a radio interview [LINK] with Rabbi Kaplan (54 min.) mainly concerning kabbalah and meditation. Recorded on June 6, 1980 - it is transcribed here. [LINK] The image presented on the website is not Rabbi Kaplan, rather his colleague [LINK] . See this other answer [LINK] for a video [this video] of the Rabbi. It is to be noted, that in one of the (posthumous) books, in the preface, there is mention of an extant tape collection of certain lectures. As w