306 A History of Judaism
religious teaching should depend on the Bible alone was modified by
acceptance of arguments by analogy and (for most, but not all, Karaites)
human reason. New months were fixed meticulously by visual observ-
ation of the new moon, ignoring the mathematical calculation of the
Rabbanites, and Rabbanite postponement of the New Year in specific
cases (as, for instance, when it might cause the Day of Atonement to be
followed by the Sabbath), so that Karaites might quite often celebrate
festivals on a day different from other Jews. Hanukkah, as a non- biblical
festival, was not observed at all. Observance of both Sabbath and diet-
ary laws was stricter in many cases than that of the Rabbanites, rejecting
the talmudic notion that a minimum quantity of a forbidden substance
is required for food to be invalidated. Rabbanite rules about menstrual
impurity were also rejected. A distinctive synagogue liturgy was adopted,
with two prayer services a day on weekdays (instead of three), consist-
ing mostly of passages from the Bible (especially the psalms) and
references to the Temple rite, and no use of the Amidah prayer which
formed such a central element in Rabbanite liturgy. By the time of Elijah
b. Moses Basyatchi in the late fifteenth century, Karaite principles could
even be codified, as follows:
All physical creation, that is, the planets and all that is upon them, has
been created. It has been created by a Creator who did not create Himself,
but is eternal. The Creator has no likeness and is unique in all respects. He
sent the Prophet Moses. He sent, along with Moses, His Law, which is
perfect. It is the duty of the believer to know the language of the Law and
its interpretation. God inspired also the other true prophets after Moses.
God will resurrect all mankind on the Day of Judgement. God requites
each person according to his ways and the fruits of his deeds. God has not
forsaken the people of the Dispersion; rather are they suffering the Lord’s
just punishment, and they must hope every day for His salvation at the
hands of the Messiah, the descendant of King David.The sixth principle, that Karaites have a duty to know the language of
the Law, led to a great deal of Karaite scholarship on the biblical text:
‘This being so, every person of the holy seed of Israel must himself study
the holy tongue and must teach his children to know the language of
our Law and of the words of the Prophets in a proper and fitting man-
ner, with special conditions which would facilitate its study.’^27
In the tenth century Jerusalem became a centre for intensive Karaite
study of the biblical text, with an outpouring of scholarly works, par-
ticularly Bible commentaries, lexicographies and studies of Hebrew