42 CHAPTER TWO
same time, Maimonides insisted on treating the Karaites as an integral
part of the Jewish community. His rule of thumb was that they should be
considered as part of the community regarding all the laws that they, like
the Rabbanites, accept as binding. He thus decrees, for example, that
they cannot be counted when assembling the required ten men for prayer
(minyan), since they reject this concept.^63 For the same reason he rules
that it is incumbent upon Rabbanites to perform ritual circumcision for
Karaite boys even on the Sabbath, the implication being that this is not
considered to be desecration of the Sabbath, but on the contrary, a per-
formance of a commandment. Nor does Maimonides leave this under-
standing implicit; he specifi cally expresses the hope that such Karaite in-
fants will grow up to join the Rabbanite fold.^64
Maimonides notes that his contemporaries identify the minim with the
Sadducees and the Boethusians. Although he has theoretical qualms about
the appropriateness of this identifi cation, he concludes that the found ers
of these sects, like “real” minim, deserve the death penalty, because they
introduce the notion of denying tradition (takdhib al- naql). By stressing
this characteristic of the minim, Maimonides highlights their similarity to
the Karaites, and he seems to insinuate that the found ers of Karaism,
too, should have been executed as heretics.^65 And yet he takes pain to
distinguish these historical found ers from contemporary Karaites. These
contemporary Karaites he regards as “captivated infants” who cannot
be taken to account for their errors.^66 Moreover, and of par ticular im-
portance for our present context, Maimonides explicitly says that “these
Karaites are not the ones designated by the Sages as minim.”^67
In discussing the Talmudic chapters regarding heresy, Maimonides is
not satisfi ed with their analysis as bygone history, and he tries to bring
out their contemporary relevance. Let us go back to the passage in the
Commentary on the Mishnah, where Maimonides defi nes the minim:
These are the people whose foolishness dulls their intellects, and
whose lusts have darkened their souls; therefore they vilify the law
and the prophets, of blessed memory, and deny the prophets con-
cerning matters about which they have no knowledge, and they
abandon the commandments in contempt. They are of the faction of(^63) Epistles, 611.
(^64) Responsa, 729– 32; and see Baron, Social and Religious History of the Jews, 5:281.
(^65) Commentary on the Mishnah,Hullin 1.2, Qodashim, 175– 76; “Epistle to Yemen,”
Epistles, 98, 141– 42;Responsa, 497; and see Baron, Social and Religious History of the
Jews, 5:280; Davidson, Moses Maimonides, 491.
(^66) Commentary on the Mishnah,Hullin 1.2.
(^67) SeeResponsa, 499; Epistles, 609 (emphasis added). Maimonides’ insistence may well in-
dicate that the differentiation was not evident to everyone.