judaism beyond the rabbis 303
Sabbath and holidays are at present no longer obligatory’. By the tenth
century Karaites were appalled by the extent of Yudghan’s religious
revolution, and al- Kirkisani was wholly opposed to the small group of
Yudghanites still living in Isfahan in his time. But it was from the fer-
ment which gave rise to these movements – and others from the same
source, such as the Shadganites and Mushkanites, about whom nothing
reliable can be gleaned from the hostile sources which mention only
their names and wild speculation about their heretical ideas – that
Anan’s teachings took hold.^21
Anan’s own doctrines, as expressed in his Sefer haMitzvot (‘Book of
Precepts’), written in Aramaic, seem to have been far less radical than
those of these other non- rabbinic leaders, and he does not seem to have
rejected the Rabbanite method of using oral tradition altogether, but he
retained the emphasis on asceticism in commemoration of the destruc-
tion of the Temple, remodelling synagogue liturgy in light of Temple
worship and insisting on strict biblical interpretation even when – or
perhaps especially when – it led to ascetic observance. Thus by a process
of restrictive scriptural interpretation Anan laid down that no fires
should be allowed on the Sabbath even if they have been lit in advance:
One might perhaps say that it is only the kindling of fire on the Sabbath
which is forbidden, and that if the fire had been kindled on the preceding
weekday it is to be considered lawful to let it remain over the Sabbath.
Now the Merciful One has written here: ‘Ye shall not kindle fire,’ and
elsewhere: ‘thou shalt not perform any work’ (Exod 20:10), and both pro-
hibitions begin with the letter taw. In the case of labour, of which it is
written: ‘Thou shalt not perform any work,’ it is evident that even if the
work was begun on a weekday, before the arrival of the Sabbath, it is
necessary to desist from it with the arrival of the Sabbath. The same rule
must therefore apply also to the kindling of fire, of which it is written: ‘Ye
shall not kindle,’ meaning that even if the fire has been kindled on a week-
day, prior to the arrival of the Sabbath, it must be extinguished.^22
Such ascetic interpretations of the biblical texts have something in
common with aspects of the Judaism of some of the Jewish groups of
the late Second Temple period, most notably the Sadducees, the Qum-
ran Yahad and the Essenes, but it is not possible to demonstrate any
direct genealogical link between Anan and any of these groups, nor
between Anan and priestly movements back in Second Temple times
with whom he also had something in common. Equally impossible to
demonstrate is any direct influence from Shiism, although Anan’s