A Little Perspective as Israel is Torn

Watching the turmoil in Israel right now, history often gives us much needed perspective.

Throughout the very long history of the Jewish people, the Children of Israel often have been torn apart by differing ideas, beliefs, and cultures. Most of us know about the ongoing competition between the Pharisees and the Sadducees in Greco-Roman times, which, by the Great Revolt of 66-73 C.E., turned into a four-way contest between those two religious and political parties then joined by the Essenes and the Zealots.

A much lesser-known rift occurred during medieval times beginning in Mesopotamia and spreading quickly throughout the Middle East and beyond. This was the rise of Karaism, founded by David ben Anon in the 760s in Babylon. The root of the word Karaism lies in the Hebrew root “k-r-a,” for reading, meaning the Scriptures. Anon rejected the validity of the Talmud and other rabbinical works, believing that pious Jews should rely on Scripture/TaNakh alone.

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The rabbis taught, following the Pharisees, the doctrine of the two-fold Torah: Moses received at Sinai the Written Torah and the Oral Torah; the Written Law and the Oral Law. Anon and his followers, called Karaim-the Karaites, rejected this teaching. The Karaites held, as the Sadducees had in ancient times, that the only revelation at Sinai was the Written Torah. The Oral Torah/Law was not revealed by G-d but rather manufactured by the rabbis over the centuries. Both Karaites and the Rabbis maintained that the Written Torah became the basis of the TaNakh-the larger Hebrew Bible.

By the 800s, Judaism was effectively riven into two camps: the Rabbinites, who followed traditional Talmudic teachings, and the Karaites, who followed David ben Anon’s theology. The Karaites would not marry Rabbinites; they would not celebrate Shabbat with them either, as they would often not allow light on Shabbat, even if lit on Friday before sundown. This was because Karaism rejected the Oral Law with respect to how the Sabbath should be celebrated.

By the 900s, a champion arose in the rabbinic world who sapped Karaism of much of its power. Saadia Gaon was that era’s greatest scholar. He was a lexicographer, philosopher, legal interpreter, and polemicist. He turned his prodigious energies against the Karaites through many of his writings. As a result of his efforts the crisis abated, and rabbinical Judaism survived.

Karaism persisted as well through the ages but was never again a threat to Jewish unity. The Karaites spread beyond the Middle East into Eastern Europe, and eventually, to Israel.

Whenever the Jews separate dramatically from each other, as we are seeing today, we find a way out of our self-imposed difficulties-at least up to now. May Saadia-like wisdom prevail in our own day.