What is Karaite Judaism?
Judaism in Five Minutes - Sarah Imhoff
Meira Polliack [+]
Tel Aviv University
Meira Polliack is Professor of Bible and the Joseph and Ceil Mazer Chair in Jewish Culture in Muslim Lands and Cairo Genizah Studies at Tel Aviv University. She is co-editor with Michael G. Wechsler of the Book Series Karaite Texts and Studies (Brill). She researches literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible, its reception and exegesis; medieval Jewish interpretation in the Islamic world; Karaite and Judeo-Arabic literature.
Description
This chapter describes the Karaite movement, a scripturalist community originating in medieval Judaism that rejected the authority of Jewish oral law as canonized in the major works of rabbinic literature. The Karaites’ intellectual tradition and thought on the Hebrew Bible, which has often been marginalized from most discussions of “mainstream” Judaism, formed an inseparable part of medieval Jewish history and intellectual tradition, fostering and carrying further its innovative spirit, especially in the realm of biblical interpretation.