Karaism

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(lit. "Scripturalism"). Sectarian form of Judaism. Karaism is distinguished first and foremost from Rabbanite (i.e., rabbinic) Judaism by its rejection of the Oral Law as embodied in the Talmud. This rejection has resulted in an alternate form of Jewish ritual practice which separated Karaites from other Jews.

Most historians place the origin of the Karaite schism in the eighth-century CE revolt of Anan ben David, while Karaites (and some historians) claim that identifiable proto-Karaite elements are discernible in various Second Temple groups (e.g., the Dead Sea Scrolls Covenanters, Alexandrian Judaism, and other non-Pharisaic and non-Sadducean parties). According to the traditional Rabbanite account Anan, passed over for the position of exilarch in favor of his younger brother, set up his own rival exilarchate, for which he was jailed by the Caliph. Anan escaped the death penalty, however, by claiming to be the head of a different religion, closer to Islam than to rabbinic Judaism. His rebellion against rabbinic leadership was thus a combination of personal pique and simple prudence. While the details of this story, reported a few hundred years after Anan's death, are not universally accepted, most scholars believe that Anan did play a major role in the development of what is now known as Karaism (a term first used in the ninth century by Benjamin al-Nahawendi).

Karaism began in Babylonia (Iraq), but it had its golden age in Erets Israel (10th-11th cent.). The Karaite community there was founded by Daniel al-Qumisi, who called upon Karaite communities of the Diaspora to send five representatives each to Erets Israel. Other important figures of the Karaite golden age were Sahl ben Matsliaḥ, Salmon ben Yeruḥim, Yefet ben Eli and his son Levi, Joseph al-Basir, and Yeshu'a ben Judah. Later Karaite communities of note were in Egypt, Byzantium, the Crimea, and Lithuania.

Whereas the Karaite calendar was originally based on observation of the Moon and agricultural phenomena, as it is now calculated it rarely differs by more than a day or so from the Rabbanite one. There are variations in the holiday observances: no second day of the holidays, even on Rosh Ha-Shanah; Shavu'Ot always on Sunday; no ḥanukkah; different fast days; Purim in First Adar; no blowing the Shofar on Rosh ha-Shanah; and no Four Species on Sukkot. Karaites observe ritual slaughter and prohibit the biblically proscribed animals; they allow the eating of meat and milk together if they are of different species, e.g., cow milk with mutton. Karaite synagogues are without seats and worshipers remove their shoes before entering them; Tefillin are not worn; full genuflection is performed at various times in the service, the order of which is entirely different from the Rabbanite system. Originally, Karaites proscribed the lighting of candles or fire before the Sabbath, but they now allow it (without a blessing); food may not be warmed and sexual relations are forbidden on the Sabbath and holidays.

A very significant difference between Rabbanite and Karaite Judaism is in the area of personal status. As a result of different laws of Marriage, Divorce, and forbidden relations, each group suspects the other of being possible mamzerim (see Illegitimacy) and of thus being unfit for intermarriage. Sephardi rabbinates generally follow a more liberal halakhic view and allow intermarriage under certain circumstances; the major Karaite objection today to intermarriage is the danger of assimilation to Rabbanism.

At present, there are approximately 30,000 Karaites in the world, including 25,000 in Israel, 3,000 in Poland and the former Soviet Union, and 1,200 in the United States, mostly in the Bay Area of California, with a synagogue in San Francisco. Smaller communities can be found in France, Switzerland, Turkey, and England. The spiritual leader of the Karaites today is Eli Marzuk of Ofakim, Chief Rabbi of the Karaite Jews in Israel.

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