During my 20 visits to Israel I had always wanted but never had the opportunity to visit Jerusalem’s oldest synagogue, The Karaite Synagogue in the Old City’s Jewish quarter. Every single time I tried, no one was inside to open the door or show me around. Thus, I felt really lucky to turn a corner to find the synagogue’s gate open, and a few tourists standing at its entrance.
We were even luckier to meet Shuki, the man with the nicest and sweetest smile in Israel according to my wife! Joshua Levy (Shuki) is the administrator of The Karaite Kenasa (their word for Beit Kneset) Synagogue and the greatest cheerleader for Karaite Judaism. Although I have had a great deal of interest and curiosity about Karaite Jews, and have visited Karaite synagogues and cemeteries in Eastern Europe, this was my first opportunity to meet a real Karaite.
Shuki graciously took us on a tour of the synagogue/community center. When he realized I was better informed than most tourists and asked good questions, he went out of his way to try to explain the Karaite beliefs and positions. While seeing their beautiful museum, he told me that one of his missions is to get out the Karaite version of facts rather than what others think or say about them. For instance, their synagogue is located in what amounts today to the basement of the building and that is usually explained by non-Karaite tour guides as the fulfillment of Psalm 130 that says, “Out of the depths have I called Thee, O the Lord. Lord, hearken unto my voice; let Thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.”
Shuki said that their explanation was not accurate. Because the Karaite Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Jerusalem, built over 1,300 years ago, it was located at street level during that time. Today, after so much destruction and construction, the street level is a whole floor up. Similarly, we discussed many of the myths and legends I had heard about Karaites, including the one that no Karaites were murdered by Nazis.
Annan ben David, who lived in 8th century Babylon is deemed to be the founder of Karaism. Karaites believe that they observe the original form of Judaism, as prescribed by God in the Tanakh, and do not accept what they consider to be later additions to the Tanakh, such as the Oral Law of Rabbinic Judaism. They place the ultimate responsibility of interpreting the Tanakh on each individual. Karaism does not reject biblical interpretation but rather holds every interpretation up to the same objective scrutiny regardless of its source.
At some point Karaites may have been as much as 40 percent of world Jewry, but nowadays they are less than 50,000 worldwide. I have always wondered what were the causes for Karaism’s near demise. Shuki’s explanation made lots of sense. He told me that since Rabbinic Judaism (what we think of as normative Judaism) has made so many adaptations and created ways to make life easier (for instance using a Shabbat elevator or timer on Shabbat or the idea of creating an eruv to allow people to walk farther on Shabbat), the Karaite practices and way of life became too hard for people so they abandoned Karaism for Rabbinic Judaism. Since there are so few Karaite Jews today, many end up marrying into Rabbinic Judaism and abandon their practices.
As we were about to leave I thanked Shuki for the tour, chat and explanations and told him I had only one complaint: why wasn’t there a gift shop? No tourist site worth its salt is without a gift shop! He produced the only thing they had for sale: a Karaite mezuzah, that in fact is only an image of the Ten Commandments, that Karaites put on their doorposts, but without the claf, the prayer that goes inside. I bought one and it now rests in the doorpost of Temple Israel’s office. It is for me a reminder that Judaism is a diverse, multi faceted and ever evolving religion.
