Karaite Judaism

This article is about the Jewish religious movement. For other meanings, see Karaite (disambiguation).

Karaites
יהדות קראית
Total population
≈ 35,000[1]–50,000[2]
Regions with significant populations
 Israel≈ 40,000
 United States≈ 1,500
 Ukraine (excluding Crimea)481[3][4]
 Poland346[5]
 Crimea295[6]
 Kazakhstan231[7]
 Russia (excluding Crimea)215[8]
 Lithuania192[9]
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Karaism is a non-Rabbinical Jewish sect[10][11] characterized by the recognition of the written Tanakh alone as its supreme authority in halakha (religious law) and theology.[12] Karaites believe that all of the divine commandments which were handed down to Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without any additional Oral Law or explanation. Unlike mainstream Rabbinic Judaism, which regards the Oral Torah, codified in the Talmud and subsequent works, as authoritative interpretations of the Torah, Karaite Jews do not treat the written collections of the oral tradition in the Midrash or the Talmud as binding.

Karaite interpretation of the Torah strives to adhere to the plain or most obvious meaning (peshat) of the text; this is not necessarily the literal meaning of the text—instead, it is the meaning of the text that would have been naturally understood by the ancient Hebrews when the books of the Torah were first written—without the use of the Oral Torah. By contrast, Rabbinic Judaism relies on the legal rulings of the Sanhedrin as they are codified in the Midrash, Talmud, and other sources to indicate the authentic meaning of the Torah. Karaism holds every interpretation of the Torah to the same scrutiny regardless of its source, and teaches that it is the personal responsibility of every individual Jew to study the Torah, and ultimately to decide personally its correct meaning. Karaites may consider arguments made in the Talmud and other works, but without exalting them above other viewpoints.

According to the Karaite Mordecai ben Nissan (born 1650), the ancestors of the Karaites were a group called Benei Ṣedeq during the Second Temple period.[13] Historians have argued over whether Karaism has a direct connection to the Sadducees dating back to the end of the Second Temple period (70 CE) or whether Karaism represents a novel emergence of similar views. Karaites have always maintained that while there are some similarities to the Sadducees due to the rejection of rabbinical authority and of the Oral Law, there are major differences.

According to Rabbi Abraham ibn Daud, in his Sefer ha-Qabbalah (written c. 1160), the Karaite movement crystallized in Baghdad in the Gaonic period (c. 7th–9th centuries) under the Abbasid Caliphate in present-day Iraq. This is the view universally accepted among Rabbinic Jews. However, some Arab scholars claim that Karaites were already living in Egypt in the first half of the seventh century, based on a legal document that the Karaite community in Egypt had in its possession until the end of the 19th century, in which the first Islamic governor ordered the leaders of the Rabbinite community against interfering with Karaite practices or with the way they celebrate their holidays. It was said to have been stamped by the palm of Amr ibn al-ʿĀṣ as-Sahmī, the first Islamic governor of Egypt (d. 664), and was reportedly dated 20 AH (641 CE).[14][15]

At one time, Karaites made up a significant proportion of the Hebrew population.[16] However as of 2013, an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Karaites resided in Israel, with smaller communities in Turkey, Europe and the United States.[17] A 2007 report estimated that, of 30,000 worldwide, more than 20,000 descend from those who made aliyah from Egypt and Iraq to Israel.[18] The largest Karaite community today resides in the Israeli city of Ashdod.[19]

  1. ^ "Karaite Jews in Egypt, Israel, and the San Francisco Bay Area". Stanford Libraries. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Israel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ 1,196 Karaites in Ukraine as a whole (including Crimea) Распределение населения по национальности и родному языку УКРАИНА Distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue, Ukraine (Russian language version)
  4. ^ Population in Autonomous Republic of the Crimea = 671, population in Sevastopol city council area = 44. 671+44 = 715. Распределение населения по национальности и родному языку, Автономная Республика Крым (Distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue, Autonomous Republic of the Crimea )
    Распределение населения по национальности и родному языку, Г.Севастополь (горсовет) (Distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue, Sevastopol city council)
  5. ^ Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno-społeczna.Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011.
  6. ^ "Национальный состав населения Российской Федерации согласно переписи населения 2021 года". Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  7. ^ "Global population data, UN".
  8. ^ "Национальный состав населения Российской Федерации согласно переписи населения 2021 года". Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  9. ^ "Gyventojų ir būstų surašymai - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas" [Population and housing censuses - Official statistics portal] (in Lithuanian).
  10. ^ "Karaism: An Introduction to the Oldest Surviving Alternative Judaism | Jewish Book Council". www.jewishbookcouncil.org. 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  11. ^ "KARAITES AND KARAISM - JewishEncyclopedia.com". www.jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  12. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Kohler, Kaufmann; Harkavy, Abraham de (1901–1906). "Karaites and Karaism". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ For instance, see Mordecai ben Nissan's Sefer Dod Mordekhai on the division of the House of Israel into two parts, [1699; first published in Vienna, 1830] republished in Ramle, Israel, 1966 by Ḥevrat Haṣlaḥah LiVnei Miqra’ (publishing house of the Karaite Jews of Israel).
  14. ^ Al-Tahdhib, No. 38, 5 Sept. 1902, p. 158.
  15. ^ Ash-Shubban Al-Qarra’in 4, 2 June 1937, p. 8, and Mourad El-Kodsi, The Karaite Jews of Egypt, 1987.
  16. ^ Jacobs, A. J. (9 September 2008) [2007]. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 69. ISBN 9780743291484. Retrieved 29 April 2023. The Karaites had their golden age in medieval times - an estimated 10 percent of Jews were once Karaite.
  17. ^ Isabel Kershner, "New Generation of Jewish Sect Takes Up Struggle to Protect Place in Modern Israel", The New York Times, 4 September 2013 - "[...] the community is estimated at 30,000 to 50,000, out of Israel's population of eight million. There are also smaller communities in the United States, Turkey and Europe."
  18. ^ Freeman, Joshua. "Laying down the (Oral) law". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 29 April 2023. Although most people concede that it is difficult to say exactly how many Karaites there are today, estimates put the population in Israel at approximately 20,000 to 25,000, accounting for the overwhelming majority of the approximately 30,000 Karaites in the world. [...] After the establishment of the State of Israel, many Karaites, most notably from Egypt, moved to Israel, settling in Ramle, Beersheba, Jerusalem, Ashdod and other areas.
  19. ^ Community of Ashdod (in Hebrew)