megann@ihuxi.UUCP (Meg McRoberts) (06/22/85)
In answer to F. Silberman's questions. . . I know a little about the Karaites off the top of my head. If anyone is interested, write to me and i can look up more information at home. The Karaites appeared about the VIII or IX century C.E., founded apparently by one Anan ben David. At this point, there were various Jewish sectarian groups floating around -- Rabbinic Judaism had not yet become "official" Judaism. Saadiah Gaon in the late X century really took after the Karaites, and Judah ha-Levi and others in XII century Spain further attacked their practice. These assaults, combined with the increasing hostility from the Islamic government in Spain and North Africa (which is mostly where they flourished) left them a fairly small and ineffectual group. Voltaire knew of them in the XVIII century (he thought they were a major improvement over the Talmud-followers). By that point, what Karaites remained were in Russia, and by now, as i understand it, they have all but disappeared. The essence of Karaite Judaism is a rejection of the Talmud, although they did appropriate the Rabbinic method. They interpret Kashrut very differently: boiling a kid in its mother's milk means ONLY that -- as long as the dairy products you serve with meat were not given by the mother of the meat, it's okay, and certainly beef served with, say, goat's milk would be acceptable. They allow no foul (What? you say. Jews without chicken soup. yup.), since the Bible forbids specific foul by name, and we can not be positive of the translation over time, so to be safe, all are forbidden. Another interesting distinction I remember is that all fires must be extinguished before Shabbat begins -- no candles left to burn. Well, that's the high-points of what i remember off the top of my head. meg mcroberts ihuxi!megann