Avrohom Eliyahu (Elya) Kaplan ( he, אברהם אליהו קפלן; 1890–1924) was a prominent Orthodox rabbi. He was born in

Kėdainiai Kėdainiai () is one of the oldest cities in Lithuania. It is located north of Kaunas on the banks of the Nevėžis River. First mentioned in the 1372 Livonian Chronicle of Hermann de Wartberge, its population is 23,667. Its old town dates to ...

, a town in the

Kaunas County Kaunas County ( lt, Kauno apskritis) is one of ten counties of Lithuania The territory of Lithuania is divided into 10 counties ( Lithuanian: singular ''apskritis'', plural ''apskritys''), all named after their capitals. The counties are ...

in Lithuania. He was born an orphan, and named Avrohom Elya for his deceased father, who had died suddenly at the age of 33 several months before his son's birth. At about this time, Reb Avraham Elya's mother remarried a man from Telshe (Reb Avraham Elya was very close to his stepfather, and called him "The Father"). Avraham Elya studied for several years in the renowned Yeshiva of Telshe. His poetic and passionate nature became legendary even at a young age. At 16, he was drawn to the spirit of the

Mussar movement The Musar movement (also Mussar movement) is a Jewish ethical, educational and cultural movement that developed in 19th century Lithuania, particularly among Orthodox Lithuanian Jews. The Hebrew term (), is adopted from the Book of Proverbs (1 ...

, and went to learn in the Talmud Torah in Kelm, the yeshiva founded by Rabbi

Simcha Zissel Ziv Simcha Zissel Ziv Broida ( he, שמחה זיסל זיו; 1824–1898), also known as Simhah Zissel Ziv or the ''Alter of Kelm'' (the Elder of Kelm), was one of the foremost students of Yisrael Salanter and one of the early leaders of the Musar m ...

. He left Kelm, however, shortly after his arrival and went to the famed yeshiva in Slabodka headed by Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel, known as the "Alter of Slabodka", and Rabbi

Moshe Mordechai Epstein Moshe Mordechai Epstein (1866–1933) was rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century. He is also one of the founders of the city of Had ...

, known by his pen name, "Levush Mordechai". Avraham Elya studied in Slabodka for seven years, until the outbreak of World War I left him stranded in his mother's home in Telshe. In Slabodka, Reb Avraham Elya found the path that he had sought, in trying to reconcile the Mussar philosophy of Lithuanian Judaism with the philosophy of

Hasidic Judaism Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Judaism, Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory ...

. At the age of 30 he was appointed as Rosh Yeshiva of the

Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary The Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary (officially in german: Rabbinerseminar für das orthodoxe Judenthum in Berlin until 1880, thereafter ''Rabbiner-Seminar zu Berlin''; in , ''Bet ha-midrash le-Rabanim be-Berlin'') was founded in Berlin on 22 Octo ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. In 1919, Rabbi Kaplan gave a eulogy (hesped) for

Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl; hu, Herzl Tivadar; Hebrew name given at his brit milah: Binyamin Ze'ev (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish lawyer, journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was the father of modern p ...

in the City of Telz. This eulogy is translated from Yiddish to Hebrew in B'Ikvot HaYir'a. He died suddenly when he was only 34 years old, about the same age as his father. In his youth (at the age of seventeen), his fiery nature induced him to compose a poem portraying impending doom and angst. This famous poem, '' Shak'a Chama'', contains a sense of depression and searching. It begins: "The sun has set... my soul has set / In the depth of its sorrow as great as the sea..." (B'Ikvot, p. 171).

Works

*''B'Ikvot HaYir'a'', Mosad HaRav Kook, 1956. Reprinted in 1988 in an expanded edition, and again in 2002. *''Divrei Talmud'', 2 volumes, Mosad HaRav Kook, 1958. Reprinted in 1970. *''Mivchar Ketavim'', privately published by the Kaplan family, 2006. These works were all compiled and edited by Rabbi Kaplan's son, the noted author Rabbi Tzvi Kaplan.

External links

Biography of Rabbi Avrohom Eliyahu Kaplan

Be'ikvos haYir'ah, the title essay

Essays, Lyrics and Songs (mp3) from Bei'kvos haYir;ah

Shtei Derachim
a comparison of Mussar and Chassidus
Some poems by Rabbi Avrohom Eliya Kaplan
including Shak'a Chamah

from his diary
Tikochinski's Article in Makor Rishon
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Avrohom Eliyahu 1890 births 1924 deaths Rabbis from Kėdainiai Lithuanian Orthodox rabbis Rosh yeshivas 20th-century Lithuanian rabbis