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Who are the Karaites?
Mirrored from
https://www.karaites.org/karaite-customs-and-traditons.html, accessed 10/10/21
The Karaites are a Jewish sect which does not recognize the authority of the post-Biblical tradition incorporated in the Talmud and in the latter Rabbinic works.
Rejection of the authority of the Talmud does not mean that the Karaites consider it unlawful to consult it or to rely on it; it means only that they deny its heavenly origin and regard it as an original work of the Sages in interpretation of the written Torah, and therefore subject to the shortcomings inherent in any handiwork of mortal men uninspired by heaven. There are a number of reasons why Karaites cannot acknowledge the authority of the oral Torah:
1. The word “Torah” (in the sense of Divine Instruction) is always used in the singular. Were the Mishnah a genuine (oral) Torah, surely somewhere in Scripture the existence of two Torahs would have been mentioned at least once.
2. Since the Mishnah is a commentary on the written Torah, what reason was there for the original injunction to preserve it only orally? Surely writing it down would have benefited Jewry by promoting agreement among the later Sages and reducing disagreement.
3. If the Tannaitic Sages have received their tradition through an interrupted chain of tridents going back to Moses himself, how could disagreement arise among them? They should have been of one mind in every particular.
4. The Torah is called perfect (Psalm 19:8). The Rabbanites say that it is perfect along with the Mishnah that accompanied it. If this is so, then the Mishnah is a completion of the written Torah. Why then did God order it not to be written down?
5. God surely had foreknown that someday the oral Torah would be in danger of being forgotten, and that it would become vital for its preservation to set it down in writing. Why then did He at first forbid its recording and thus expose His people to the dreadful risk of losing it altogether? The truth must be in the opposite direction: When the Sages saw that the unity of the people and the preservation of the oral Torah was in jeopardy, they invented the fiction of its having been revealed to Moses simultaneously with the written Torah, and of the ordained delay in its recording until that time, when circumstances made it imperative to reduce it to writing in order to prevent its loss.
Aside from the rejection of the authority of the post-Biblical tradition, there is no basic divergence between the Karaite and the Rabbanite dogmatic.
Nehemia Gordon’s website “The Karaite Korner” describes Karaism thus:
Karaism is the original form of Judaism as prescribed by God in the Torah. Karaite Judaism rejects later additions to the Tanach (Jewish Bible) such as the Rabbinic Oral Law and places the ultimate responsibility of interpreting the Bible on each individual. Karaism does not reject Biblical interpretation but rather holds every interpretation up to the same objective scrutiny regardless of its source.
The following is mirrored without permission
from
http://www.karaite-korner.org/fact_sheet.shtml
What is Karaism?
Karaism is Judaism according to the Hebrew Bible. The word Karaite (Hebrew: benéi Mikra) means “Followers of the Bible” (“Mikra” is the Hebrew word for Bible). Karaites believe only in the authority of the Hebrew Bible and reject all later innovations such as the Rabbinic “Oral Law.”
Biblical Interpretation
Karaites do not take the Bible “literally” since every written work requires interpretation. Instead, Karaism requires that Biblical interpretation strive for the plain meaning of the text, as it would have been understood by the ancient Israelites when it was first given. It is the personal responsibility of every individual to study the Hebrew Scripture and ultimately decide for themselves the correct meaning.
Origins of Karaism
Karaism has been around since the Torah was given on Mt Sinai. It was only in late Second Temple times that other sects appeared and challenged the authority of the Hebrew Bible. The Rabbanites first appear in history only in the 1st century BCE and then only as a minor group. In this period the majority of the People of Israel continued to faithfully follow the Hebrew Bible. It was only through collaboration with the Romans that the Rabbis slowly gained control over Jewish institutions.
Karaism in History
Throughout the Middle Ages Karaites made up about half the Jewish population in many areas including Byzantium, Spain, and Egypt. In some areas Karaites were the majority of the Jewish population such as in Jerusalem (before the Crusades) and Crimea. There were also Karaite communities in Morocco, Iraq, Lithuania, Galicia, and Poland.
Karaism Today
Today there are approximately 30,000 Karaites with some 25,000 Karaites in Israel, 2,500 in the US, and smaller communities in France, Switzerland, Turkey, England, and elsewhere. The main Karaite centers in Israel are located in Ramla, Ashdod, Ofakim, Beersheba, Moshav Ranen, Moshav Masliah, with smaller communities in Jerusalem, Bat Yam, and Arad. The main Karaite center in the US is in San Francisco, which has the only active Karaite synagogue in North America.
Calendar
The Karaite calendar follows the Biblical requirement of fixing the holidays according to the New Moon and Abib. Because of this the Karaite holidays often fall on different days than those of the Rabbanites. The Rabbanites originally followed the same calendar as documented in the Mishnah and only in the 4th century CE replaced it with a pre-calculated calendar.
Reasons Why Karaites*
Don’t Accept the Oral Law
1. The Oral Law is not mentioned even once in the entire Tanach (Hebrew Bible).
2. When God told Moses to come up to Mount Sinai to receive the tablets He said: “Come up to me into the mountain, and be there: and I will give thee tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written;” (Ex 24:12). No mention is made of an Oral Law.
3. The Tanach reports that the written Torah was both lost and completely forgotten for over 50 years and only rediscovered by the Temple priests (2Ki 22:8; 2Chr 34:15). It is inconceivable that an Oral Law could have been remembered when even the written Law was forgotten.
4. The words of the Mishnah and Talmud are clearly the words of men living in the 2nd-5th centuries CE and absent are the familiar Biblical formulae “And the Lord spoke unto Moses saying,” and “Thus saith the Lord.”
5. The Rabbis claim that the “Oral Law” is the official interpretation of the Torah given on Mount Sinai. Yet if one actually looks at the Mishnah and Talmud they are full of the opinions of Rabbis who disagree with each other on almost every issue. The Rabbis explain that whenever there are such disagreements, “both opinions are the words of the living God.” Karaites maintain that it is unreasonable to believe that God would contradict Himself.
* All of the arguments listed on this page, excepting the discussion of the calendar, are the same reasons that I personally reject the validity of the “Oral Law.” You must decide for yourself your position on this issue. [BACK]
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