If you opened a Karaite “kosher” restaurant, what would you call it?
Okay, so the title of this post is a bit misleading. For that matter, so is the comic. There really isn’t much of a dilemma when it comes to observant Jews looking for kosher places to eat. Your choices are “dairy,” “meat,” or “parve.”
And there certainly isn’t anything as bold as “Cheeseburgers and Paradise,” which in my ideal world would serve food according to the Karaite/biblical standards. B’ezrat Hashem, one day soon!
Filed under Kara & Robby, Karaite Rabbanite Relations, Kashrut
Real-Life Karaites Pray Here!
It seems like whenever an orthodox rabbi wants to win a halakhic debate he compares his opponents (or their position) to Karaites (or Karaism). To be honest, these comparisons are sometimes the best publicity Karaites can get. I can name dozens of Karaites whose first introduction to Karaite Judaism was through a rabbi who criticized them for holding Karaite beliefs.
But there’s something deeper and more troubling going on with these comparisons.
Filed under ben Asher, Hametz, Karaite Rabbanite Relations, Talmud
Today, A Blue Thread launches our Fall 2013 Book Club – yes, I know it’s still summer –and I thought the perfect place to start was with a book review, interview and free giveaway of 10 signed copies of Nehemia Gordon’s latest book, Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence: The Hebrew Power of the Priestly Blessing Unleashed.
I first met Nehemia in person some 20+ years ago at a camp hosted by the Karaite Jews of America, and I spent a few years with him in the Karaites Yahoo Groups forum in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I credit that forum with re-awakening my Karaite passion, so it is particularly fun for me to catch up with Nehemia about Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence.
Filed under Book Club, Books, Daniel al-Kumisi, Divine Name
My copy of Alan A. Winter’s Savior’s Day. Quite a read!
I love reading anything that raises the profile of Karaites, even when the work is fictional. So, I thought I’d offer some thoughts on Alan A. Winter’s Savior’s Day, a recently published novel that mentions Karaites quite prominently.
Savior’s Day is historical fiction about a series of murders tied to the lost pages of the Aleppo Codex. It is a tale that spans centuries and takes us through many of the Middle Ages’ greatest Jewish communities: Jerusalem, Tiberias, Fostat, and Aleppo.
Filed under Aleppo Codex, ben Asher, Books, What is Karaite Judaism, Yaqub al-Qirqisani
Kara the Karaite and Robby the Rabbanite
sure have their differences.
When I was nine or ten, the rabbi at the conservative synagogue where I received my Jewish education asked me a simple question: “Shawn, do Karaites wear tefillin?”
I knew that I had never seen a set of tefillin anywhere near my Karaite community. But instead of saying “no,” I lied and told him that Karaites did wear tefillin. (Sorry, Rabbi!)
Filed under Kara, Kara & Robby, Robby, Tefillin
Tobias Funke: techellet dying accident?
(Source: TobiasFunke.com)
With apologies to Arrested Development . . . Perhaps there are more Karaites out there than the world is ready to acknowledge.
A week ago, I had occasion to spend Shabbat at the house of an orthodox Rabbanite family in San Jose, CA. When I arrived on Friday afternoon, one of my wonderful hosts began to tell me about an amazing occurrence.
Filed under Arrested Development, Daud Hosni, Michelle Chamuel, Tobias Funke
So it turns out that many medieval Rabbanites from the Land of Israel and the surrounding environs deserve a badge of interdenominational awesomeness as well.
And traces of this awesomeness run from Cairo in the early 11th century all the way to the Rabbanites of Egypt in the years following the birth of the State of Israel. Again, don’t take my word for it.
Continue reading
Filed under Aleppo Codex, Karaite Rabbanite Relations, Samuel ben Jacob, Zionism
