Posted on 05/20/2013 11:29:59 PM PDT by Cronos
WHEN is a Jew not a Jew? When he’s a Karaite. Or so says Israel’s chief rabbinate, which, after 65 years of relative harmony with an ancient Jewish sect, is reopening an old and bitter schism. In recent months, rabbis working for Israel’s ministry of religion have deemed Karaite marriages invalid, fined their butchers for claiming to be kosher, and demanded that Karaites marrying Orthodox Jewish women should convert, sometimes having to undergo tavila, or baptism. “We are already Jews,” protests Moshe Firrouz, a computer engineer who heads the Karaites’ Council of Sages. “The rabbinate is denying us our religious freedom.”
For over 1,300 years Karaites have battled with Rabbanites (adherents to mainstream Judaism) over their rejection of the Talmud, the corpus of an oral tradition that Rabbanites claim God gave Moses with the written Torah on Mount Sinai. Clinging to the biblical word alone, Karaites regard skullcaps, phylacteries (little leather boxes containing Torah scrolls), matrilineal descent and non-biblical festivals, such as the Festival of Lights, as pagan accretions. Like Muslims or—as they prefer to say—like Temple-era Jews, they prostrate barefoot on carpets. “The Orthodox add and the Reform take away,” says a recent Karaite convert. “It is only we who follow the Torah.”
Once almost as numerous as Rabbanites, today’s Karaites make up less than 1% of Israel’s 6m Jews. Persecution has whittled their number down. The greatest classical Jewish theologian, Moses Maimonides, denounced them as minim, or heretics, and banned them from public prayer; others termed their children bastards, since their parents married in weddings which diverged from the Orthodox rite.
...Karaites have lesser Jewish rights, too. “Israel is a Jewish state and Jews have superior rights,” says the chief rabbinate’s spokesman. “But the Karaites are not Jewish.”
Toda Rabah! ( Thank you very much! , in Hebrew)
Thanks Never A Dull Moment! A great and apropos nick’, btw. :’)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3021932/posts?page=7#7
Oh, well, http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21578098-old-religious-argument-once-again-rears-its-angry-head-whos-jew that's the link
Thanks for the points of correction.
I think you need to add in HTML tags
As any lost gentile, yes. An observant Jew, however, is still under the Old Covenant which God made with Moses which is not repealed. God’s covenant remains.
Interesting -- I had roughly heard of Crimean Karaites, but your post indicated more details. These early medieval communities like Karaites, Mandeans etc. are fascinating historically as remnants of earlier populations or religious thoughts
well, it’s not only true of religion, but anything that has got human’s involved — like the lilliputians and Blefuscu folks. People interpret things differently — at any event there are 3 sides to the story :)
This is an eye-opener. I thought the last Karaites disappeared centuries ago. The Khazars were Karaites, for instance.
Very unlikely Khazars were Karaites, if the story of their conversion is even true. More likely is that, as the Khazars disappeared, some remnant of them became Karaites rather than leave Judaism completely.
My pleasure! Thanks!
You are welcome....
Before I begin this one, let me apologize in advance if it does not format properly.
The Khazars were NOT Karaites. Here’s another one of those little “mysteries” I can help out on.
In the 8th century, as a result of the influx and influence of the Jews migrating throughout the region, the nation of Khazar, much of its royalty and aristrocracy converted to Judaism.
The conversion was performed by Rabbi Yitzak HaSangari. The result was a more tolerant and harmonious society. The Jews, who were educated in many other nations, brought with them the culture, arts, and technologies of the civilization/nations they fled from.. The direct result was that the Khazars became an Asian steppe tribal society that successfully made the transition to an urbanite society.
Eventually, the Khazars and the Balkins were conquered by Sviatoslav of Kiev. However, most of the families of the original migrating Jews remained in the region. World Wars 1 & 2, along with the rebirth of the State of Israel, led to mass Jewish immigration out of the region.
Many people, generally Anti-Semites, try to state that these people were not of Jewish blood. But this is incorrect. Genetic testing shows that they are indeed, without question of the same Jewish people who were still living in the Middle East and other areas. So, any discussion of Ashkenazi Jews not being “original” Jews is simply moot.
The Karaites were not part of the Khazars. Most of them remained in the Middle East. Many lived in Egypt.
The Khazars were definitely originally followers of Tengriism/shamanism and their realm was multi-religious. The elite may have converted or not, things are still uncertain
The ruling elite may have converted to Judaism, not the entire realm which remained with multiple religions.
Jeremiah 31 Behold,the days come,saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,and with the house of Judah:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake,although I was an husband unto them,saith the LORD:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days,saith the LORD,I will put my Torah in their inward parts,and write it in their hearts; and will be their G-d,and they shall be my people.34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother,saying,Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity,and I will remember their sin no more.
Only one way their is forgiveness of sin... shedding of blood... His only begotten Son took all of our placev. the new covenant is here and now.. To the Jew first and also to the Gentile. Believe and be baptized in His Son’s name for the remission of your sins and you will receive the gift of His Holy Spirit.... and His law will be written on your heart..
Actually, a good portion of the population did convert. The Rabbi made records, all Rabbis are required to, which is how we know who the Rabbi was, and who the people were.
that’s what I believed as well, but I’ve read conflicting items and there isn’t adequate proof. What we do have is about the elite of the population converting, but the Khazar khaganate was made up of multiple nations
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