RAMBAM THROUGH THE EYES OF THE KARAITES:
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| Writings of Aharon ben Eliyahu, a 14th century Karaite who produced a Karaite version of Maimonides' Guide of the Perplexed. He was known as the 'Karaite Rambam'. |
INTRODUCTION:
Maimonides is known as one of the fathers of Jewish law and rationalist
philosophy, yet he is also variously depicted as a secret mystic; a convert to Islam
[See Could
Rambam Have Been Forced to Convert to Islam?]; the Lubavitcher Rebbe referred to himself as a
follower of Rambam; the
Wissenschaft
des Judentums of the Enlightenment Movement held Rambam up as their shining
light; and even the Karaites claimed him as one of their own!
In this article, which I have based on the research of
Professor Daniel J. Lasker,
we will explore the Karaite claim that Rambam was a secret Karaite.
THE KARAITES:
The Karaite movement was started in the 8th
century in present-day Iraq. Its followers accepted the idea that the Torah was
given to Moses at Sinai, but they completely rejected the notion of the Oral Tradition
as it manifested through rabbinic Judaism. The Karaites (or Kara’im in
Hebrew – from the word kara or mikra meaning ‘Scripture’) based
their teachings exclusively on the Written Torah.
There still are a substantial
number of Karaite Jews today, and it appears that at one point in our history,
they may have even formed the majority of our nation.
The Karaites often conflicted with the Rabbinites, although
in Rambam’s 12th century Egypt, the two communities had close
connections.
[For more on the Karaites see here.]
ELIYAHU BASHYATCHI:
Although the Karaites relied mostly on the literal Torah
text, they also had their version of an oral tradition and also had chachamim,
halachists and decisors. One such
decisor during the 1400s was Eliyahu Bashyatchi
(1420-1490).
Bashyatchi was well-schooled in rabbinic and Talmudic
Judaism. His Rabbinite teacher was the Rishon, R. Mordechai Comtino who
was also the teacher of the Re’em (R. Eliyahu Mizrachi author of Sefer
haMizrachi, a supercommentary on Rashi to the Torah).
The Re’em became
the Chacham Bashi or Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire, and both he and
his teacher were known for their tolerant attitudes towards Karaites. Such was
the unprejudiced milieu in which Bashyatchi found himself.
RAMBAM AND IBN EZRA – ‘SECRET KARAITES’?
Bashyatchi wrote that both Rambam as well as Avraham Ibn
Ezra (who, in his commentary, openly referenced Karaite sources hundreds of
times, see here)
were:
“...among the great men of
Israel...
Their occasional attacks on
the Karaites were for external consumption only, but God knows what was in
their hearts.
They revealed their secrets to
special individuals, since it is improper to say the truth to everyone, but
they told the truth to those to whom it was proper.”
According to Bashyatchi, both Rambam and Ibn Ezra were
‘secret Karaites’!
RAMBAM’S ALLEGED ‘DISSILLUSIONMENT’ WITH RABBINIC JUDAISM:
Bashyatchi goes on to bring what he considers to be proof of
Rambam’s general ‘disillusionment’ with the mainstream Rabbinite worldview:
“And thus said the sage Rabbi
Moses the son of Rabbi Maimon...in the Guide [of the Perplexed]...concerning
one of the dicta [statements] of the Rabbinites [irrelevant to our discussion
but relating to brevity in prayer]:
‘Would that all [their] dicta
were like it!’
It appears from this that he
did not consider every dicta of the Rabbinites to be proper, as this one was.”
This quotation from Rambam, praising one particular Talmudic
statement, seemed to indicate to Bashyatchi that Rambam openly preferred this
Talmudic statement over most of the others, therefore - despite some negative references
by Rambam about the Karaites - Rambam was an anti-Rabbinite and a secret
Karaite!
Rambam’s actual words in his Guide of the Perplexed are as
follows:
“You also know their famous
dictum – would that all [their other]
dicta were like it.”
One can understand how Bashyatchi was happy to be drawn by
Rambam’s reference to one Rabbinite statement (about brevity in prayer) as ‘their famous dictum’
– as if Rambam was distancing himself from ‘them’, the Rabbinites.
RABBINITE ‘INTIMIDATION’:
According to Bashyatchi, Rambam was too afraid of his
coreligionists to openly admit the truth of Karaism - as were the Ashkenazim of
Bashyatchi’s own day in the 1400s too afraid to admit to the truth of Karaism
either. This was because, in Bashyatchi’s time, the Rabbinite masses were intimidated
by the fact that their leaders would:
“...eat garlic sauce, make lots of noise about
wearing the tallit and tefillin, and wear long coats and decorated Russian
hats.”
Bashyatchi seems to imply that the Rabbinite leadership created
a societal sub-culture which intimidated their followers into some form of cohesion
if not submission.
Accordingly, he alleges that a type of ‘deep state’ existed
among the Rabbinite leadership, which prevented the people from recognizing the
truth of Karaism.
RAMBAM’S ANTI-KARAITE RHETORIC:
Daniel Lasker writes that the allegation by Bashyatchi that
Rambam was a ‘secret Karaite’, is astonishing, considering that Rambam was
known to have made some very strong anti-Karaite statements in his Letter to
Yemen (although it is possible that Bashyatchi was unaware of the letter).
Rambam wrote:
“[B]e very careful and keep
your eyes open lest any of the heretics [namely, the Karaites], may they be
speedily destroyed, catch any of you, since that would be worse for you than apostasy...and
know that it is permitted to slay them [the Karaites] in our opinion...”
Evidently, Rambam was actually in favour of the death
sentence for Karaites!
It even appears, from Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna,
that death sentences were actually carried out on some of the Karaites in
Spain.
WAS RAMBAM PRO OR ANTI-KARAITE?
Taking into consideration Bashyatchi’s claim, based on the
Guide, that Rambam was a ‘secret Karaite’, and the above two Maimonidean sources
depicting strong anti-Karaite rhetoric - was Rambam, in the words of Daniel Lasker
a critic or a cultural hero of the Karaites?
THE DATING OF THE RAMBAM’S WRITING:
To answer this question we need to remember that Rambam’s
anti-Karaite writings took place relatively early in his career. Rambam was
born in 1135. His Letter to Yemen was written around 1172, and his Mishna Commentary
was from around 1168. This placed Rambam in his early thirties when these anti-Karaite statements were made.
It does seem, however, that as he got older, he softened his
stance against the Karaites.
RAMBAM’S LATER AND MORE TOLERANT WRITINGS:
In Rambam’s Mishneh Torah, written around 1180, he
seems to regard Karaites (according to the printed texts) and heretics as
victims of circumstances beyond their control, as if they were children taken
captive by non-Jews and raised without any knowledge of their own heritage.
Similarly, in one of Rambam’s responsa, he writes that as
long as Karaites are respectful towards the tradition of Rabbinite sages, we too
should be respectful towards them - and we may visit them in their homes, enjoy
their wine, bury their dead and perform circumcision on their children even on
Shabbat.
Rabbi Kapach
points out in his edition of the Rambam’s Commentary on the Mishna, that in Rambam’s
own handwritten correctional notes in the margin, he himself had omitted the earlier
reference to the death penalty for Karaites.
Besides Rambam changing his stance against Karaites as he
got older, it is also possible that he became more tolerant of them after he
had moved to Egypt around 1168 when he completed his Commentary on the Mishna,
and saw just how integrated the Karaites were within the Egyptian Jewish
community.
[For fragment evidence of interaction and even intermarriage
between Rabbinites and Karaites, see The
Cairo Geniza.]
DID RAMBAM HAVE FIRST-HAND KNOWLEDGE OF KARAITES BEFORE
MOVING TO EGYPT?
According to Daniel Lasker, it is possible that Rambam had
never met Karaites before moving to Egypt - and his reference to executing
Karaites in Spain (in his Mishna Commentary) may have been because the Spanish
Karaite community, although quite vocally anti-Rabbinite, was very small and he
may not have had first-hand association with them.
It is also unclear whether there even were Karaites living in Yemen at all, around
the time Rambam sent his famous letter there.
KARAITES BEGIN ADOPTING RAMBAM AS THEIR ‘CULTURAL HERO’:
After Rambam had softened towards the Karaites, they
correspondingly began to adopt more and more of his teachings into their
literature.
13th CENTURY:
AHARON BEN YOSEF HAROFEH:
The 13th century Karaite halachic author,
Aharon ben Yosef haRofeh, began to incorporate Maimonidean thought into Karaite
texts.
14th CENTURY:
AHARON BEN ELIYAHU:
The next authoritative Karaite who continued to incorporate
Maimonides into his teachings, was Aharon ben Eliyahu (who was differentiated
from his predecessor Aharon the Elder, by the title Aharon the Younger). He
flourished in the 14th century, and was so influenced by Maimonides
that he was referred to as the ‘Karaite Maimonides’!
Aharon the Younger composed a work called Eitz Chaim
which was a Karaite version of the Guide of the Perplexed.
He, for example, did not ascribe individual Divine Providence
to animals but only to humans. This was in keeping with Rambam’s belief that G-d takes care of the
various species or groups of animals, vegetation and
inanimate matter as a whole but not of the individual within
the cluster.
Thus hashgacha peratit (individual Divine Providence)
applies only to humans - while hashagcha kelalit (general Divine
Providence) would apply to all other creatures and also to inanimate objects.
15th CENTURY:
ELIYAHU BASHYATCHI:
The next major Karaite halachic decisor was the 15th
century Eliyahu Bashyatchi from whom we quoted at the beginning of the article,
who claimed Rambam as one of their own and as a ‘secret Karaite’.
Daniel Lasker writes:
“Taking things one step further, and turning
Maimonides into a secret Karaite, was not such a large leap of faith for the
Karaites who, in any event, were turning to the ‘Guide [of the Perplexed]’ for
both religious and philosophical guidance.”
But amazingly, it was not only to the Guide of the Perplexed
that the Karaites were turning, but even to Rambam’s halachic writings
like the Mishneh Torah:
CALEV AFENDOPOLO:
Bashyatchi’s influential brother-in-law, Calev Afendopolo
adopted the Rabbinite cycle of reading the Torah from Tishrei to Tishrei
– thus changing the traditional Karaite custom which used to be from Nisan
to Nisan.
In his Patshegen Ketav haDaat, he unexpectedly copies
sections of Rambam’s Mishneh Torah verbatim.
Furthermore, Afendopolo’s treatment of the messianic era is also
a copy of Rambam’s discussion of this matter in his various works.
The Karaites are now truly beginning to adopt Maimonidean
texts.
18th CENTURY:
SIMCHA YITZCHAK LUTSKI:
The Karaite leaders in the centuries that followed continued
to heap praises on Rambam, and the 18th century Simcha Yitzchak
Lutski wrote:
“All the Torah laws which are
written...are all collected by Maimonides...and he explained them at length in
his great composition, called Yad haChazakah [or Mishneh Torah].
He who wishes to know them should look there.”
Referring to Simcha Yitzchak Lutski, Daniel Lasker makes the
point that:
“He often made reference to
Maimonides as an authoritative source of knowledge, blurring thereby the
boundaries between Karaism and Rabbinism...
No preference is given to the
Karaite worthies over the Rabbanite ones...
Lutski’s frequent explicit and
implicit citations of Maimonides’ works throughout his own compositions
indicate the central role Maimonides played in his thought.”
THE KARAITE KABBALIST:
Fascinatingly, Simcha Yitzchak Lutski, who died in 1760 –
the same year as the Baal Shem Tov passed away – also introduced mysticism and Kabbalah
to the Karaites, making him an unusual Karaite Kabbalist.
THE KARAITE SHIFT FROM RAMBAM TOWARDS KABBALAH:
During the early modern period, there appears to have been a
shift away from the somewhat central role Rambam played in earlier Karaite
thought. The reason given by Daniel Lasker is astonishing:
“If Maimonideanism was
challenged by Karaites in the early modern period, it was because of the
growing acceptance of the Kabbalah as an authoritative part of the Jewish
tradition, even for Karaites.”
Thus we see that even Karaism was affected by a strong
mystical influence in more recent times, to the detriment of the powerful
Maimonidean rational, philosophical and even somewhat halachic influence
of earlier times.
RAMBAM BECOMES A ‘SECRET KARAITE’ AND A ‘SECRET MYSTIC’:
In an astounding Karaite defence of Kabbalah over
Rambam’s ‘rational anti-mysticism’, Simcha Yitzchak Lutski wrote:
“There is no doubt that had
Maimonides...seen the Zohar which is the true wisdom of the Torah, received
from the early sages of Israel...[who received it] from the prophets...he [Maimonides]
would certainly have followed it...
\
Nevertheless, since [the
Zohar] had not yet been revealed in his days, and he never saw it...he wrote
that which he wrote.”
FROM PURITAN LITERALISTS TO SEMI-RAMBAMISTS TO MYSTICS:
Simcha Yitzchak Lutski also presented a most derisive denunciation
of Maimonidean rationalism in favour of mysticism - unexpected from a Karaite -
by his negative reference to Rambam as one who initially went outside of
Judaism and “turned to the uncircumcised Greek philosophers...” instead
of looking within.
This way the allure of the mystical tradition eventually
even made inroads into the Karaite community.
