By COLlive reporter
It is very likely that you have come across a screenshot of Rabbi Mendel Kaplan giving a Torah class online – or you know someone who has.
The Chabad Shliach who leads Chabad Flamingo in Toronto, Canada, has presented 2,200 classes online, featured on Judaism website Chabad.org, Torah Cafe, COLlive.com, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and other media outlets.
He now launched a dedicated website RabbiKaplan.TV as a comprehensive platform for all his talks all in one easily searchable location. It will be updated regularly with audio and video classes for those who follow him as a Torah teacher who has impacted many thousands around the world.
In a conversation with COLlive.com ahead of the holiday of Shavuos, Rabbi Kaplan said his website is over 24 years in the making.
In 1998, Rabbi Kaplan and his wife Faygie Kaplan (nee Grossbaum) were appointed as Shluchim in Toronto. On the last day of Pesach, Rabbi Kaplan was scheduled to visit a local prominent Shul as part of Tahalucha – a Chabad tradition of adding Torah and joy to other communities.
As he was about to go up and speak, the Rabbi of the shul got up and announced that he warned the Lubavitcher visitor that he may not mention a word about who is Moshiach. “He said that if I did, he will personally and literally throw me out of the shul,” Rabbi Kaplan recalls.
Both Rabbi Kaplan and the crowd were stunned. “After that introduction, the entire shul, which was packed with people, gave me their full attention,” he says. “The entire Shul was silent and they hung on to my every word, which was based on a Sicha of the Rebbe.”
The speech ended without incident. While Rabbi Kaplan was not given any positive feedback about it, he was relieved that he also avoided possible negative repercussions.
Some 6 months later he received a phone call, just as he was taking down his Sukkah after Simchas Torah.
“How would you like to be on TV?” a voice on the other end asked.
Thinking it was a prank, Rabbi Kaplan jokingly said yes.
But it was not a prank. The caller was Dr. Michael Kigel, a philosopher and TV show host. He was searching for a guest to speak on his religious TV program and asked around in a local Jewish bookstore for any good Jewish speakers. A man in the store recommended Rabbi Kaplan based on that visit on Pesach. “The speech was a big hit,” the man said.
Rabbi Kaplan began appearing on the TV show, which led to offers to speak on radio programs, which he has been doing regularly for the past 18 years. He soon began recording audio classes, which later expanded to video classes as well.
During the Covid lockdown, Rabbi Kaplan began giving classes and words of inspiration via Facebook Live, which were seen by many around the world, giving chizuk to many during isolation. At one point, his Facebook page was disabled due to an antisemitic complaint and Rabbi Kaplan switched to YouTube Live.
His classes are recorded and filmed using TV studio grade equipment, in many subjects daily, which takes many hours. A 15-minute Shiur on Moshiach can take three hours to prepare, he says. A class on Shaar Habitachon can take 4 to 5 hours to prepare. His classes include sources for everything he teaches, and those who watch them are accustomed to seeing the many seforim used in preparing the class on his desk and being referred to.
In the past decades of giving classes, many thousands have been impacted. “One Jewish woman who found one of my classes on Chabad.org began coming to the classes in person, once she realized they were recorded here in Toronto, her hometown. She soon became fully frum, and is now married to a Rosh Kollel and gives Torah classes herself,” he says.
Rabbi Kaplan attributes the worldwide success and popularity of his teachings to the Rebbe’s kochos. “The seeds were planted for all of this at one Tahalucha visit over 24 years ago,” he says.
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The new website RabbiKaplan.TV was created by the company leverage.it. It aggregates the myriad of classes, both audio and video, in one place, which is easily searchable by topic. Visit RabbiKaplan.TV for more.
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So excited to check this out!