In a synagogue in a quiet area of Beersheba, a noticeboard encourages congregants to visit a Web site where they can become more involved in the community, an unexceptional sight in any shul. In the same room, framed biblical verses grace the walls.
Israel's Karaites
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
If not for the inconspicuous shoe-lined cubbyholes underneath the benches that line the small anteroom outside the sanctuary, one might easily mistake this for a traditional synagogue. As worshipers enter, they bow towards the ark, remove their shoes, wash their hands and proceed to the sanctuary, which contains beautiful carpets, but only a few chairs at the back (reserved for the elderly).
As in many synagogues, the women proceed to the balcony while men remain on the ground level. But as the hazan stands near the bima and leads the congregation, it becomes clear that to the vast majority of the world's Jews, at least, this is no ordinary house of worship. It is, rather, one of a handful of the world's active Karaite synagogues.
Israel is now home to most of the world's Karaite Jews, who have been estranged from mainstream Judaism for centuries. 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.
Despite the fact that many people today might believe the terms "Karaite" and "Jew" to be mutually exclusive, they are not, and that is just one of the many prevalent misconceptions about the group. (Others are that they hang their tzitzit on walls, wear tefillin between their eyes and sit in total darkness on Shabbat.)
Asked directly whether Karaites are Jews, Nehemia Gordon, an active Karaite in Jerusalem, declares "Absolutely. We're Jews first and Karaites second."
If Gordon seems eager to clear up misconceptions, it is likely because he is constantly called on to do so.
Frequently confused with the Samaritans, who still bring sacrifices on Mount Gezirim and who have a different Bible from the one that Karaites and rabbinic Jews use, Karaites consider themselves Jews and are considered by the Israel Rabbinate to be Jews as well.
"There's a lot of confusion because of the Karaites in Eastern Europe. They became 'cultural Karaites' and rejected Judaism - and say that they're not Jews," explains Gordon.
The great majority of Karaites come from Egypt, however, and Gordon asserts that "within Judaism, we accept the Karaite approach as opposed to the Orthodox or Conservative or Reform approach. But I must emphasize that we're first and foremost Jews," he repeats.
Rabbi David Chayim Chelouche, the chief rabbi of Netanya, agrees. "A Karaite is a Jew," says Chelouche, who has written a great deal about the Karaites. "We accept them as Jews and every one of them who wishes to come back [to mainstream Judaism] we accept back. (There was once a question about whether Karaites needed to undergo a token circumcision in order to switch to rabbinic Judaism, but the rabbinate agrees today that it is not necessary.) He cautions, however, that the acceptance of Karaites as Jews should not be confused with acceptance of their practice of excluding the Oral Law. "A person cannot make his own Torah," he says.
Although the Karaites accept all 24 books of the Bible as holy, they staunchly reject the divinity of the Oral Law (recorded in the Talmud) as well as the authority of the rabbis, and view many aspects of rabbinic Halacha as contradictory to the pshat, or plain meaning, of the Torah.
"There are three main concepts that Karaite practice is based on," explains Rabbi Moshe Firrouz of the Karaite synagogue in Beersheba. "There is the written word of the Bible, logical interpretation, and tradition."
Firrouz stresses that one is not allowed to make any sort of rule that contradicts the Torah, and if one gives an explanation for one of the passages, that explanation should not contradict any other part of the Torah either.
Such interpretive methods allow for certain practices that raise eyebrows amongst rabbinic Jews, to say the least. For example, Karaites don't wear tefillin. They read the biblical passage from which that commandment is derived metaphorically and consider the wearing of tefillin to be an "over-literalization" on the part of the rabbis. Karaites also have no problem eating milk and meat together (granted that both the milk and the meat are kosher), as they reason that the passage that commands Jews "not to boil a kid in its mother's milk" is an explicit violation against a specific pagan fertility ritual practiced by the Canaanites, rather than a law encoding dietary practice.
Personal interpretation however, does not mean that one need not consult with others who are more learned.
