Karaite Judaism

Karaite Judaism is a kind of Judaism that accepts only the Hebrew Bible as authoritative, and rejects any religious authority in Mishnah and Talmud, which are explanations of the Bible by rabbis in the first few centuries of the Common Era. Karaite Jews believe that each person should be able to explain the Torah for themselves, instead of following the explanations of the rabbis. Today the largest communities of Karaites are in Israel and San Francisco.

Declaration of faith

The list of main beliefs to Karaite Judaism are called the "Tuv Taam." It is called this because those are the first two words in Hebrew of the beliefs. These beliefs are:

• There is one God who is YHWH the creator of the Heavens and Earth.
• The Torah that Moses gave to the Israelites at Sinai is the truth
• The Torah is the infallible word of YHWH God of Israel.
• Those who follow the laws of the Torah their name will be written in the Book of Life .
• The place of where the Temple in Jerusalem stood is holy, and prayers are said in the direction of where it stood
• The first day of each Hebrew month is decided by the lunar (moon) cycle
• The Tanakh, is a book of truth.
• The beginning of the Jewish year according to the Torah is decided by the growth of the barley crops in the land of Israel
• The holidays talked about in the Torah are respected and celebrated
• YHWH is the ruler of the world and he is the only being that always has existed and always will exist
• The Great Day of YHWH will come and everyone will know his name.

Other websites

• Karaite Korner
• Karaite-USA Archived 2007-06-15 at the Wayback Machine
• Karaite Beliefs in 5 Languages