UPDATES
9:00 am Israel time, Sunday, August 30 2015
**The daily Palestinian terror report:
At 12:08 am this morning, a Palestinian terrorist attempted to run over 4 IDF soldiers near Hebron. 1 soldier was wounded, and the terrorist somehow escaped. One hour earlier (11:02 pm), another Israeli car was totally burned in a Molotov cocktail attack on the Mt. of Olives. Fortunately, no one was physically wounded. Again, the terrorists escaped.
These were just two of approximately 30 terror attacks yesterday.
In an astonishing report issued by the Ministry of Construction in Jerusalem a couple of days ago, it was noted that more than 580 terrorist attacks have taken place in Jerusalem in the last two months alone. What is astonishing aside from the sheer number of attacks is the fact that the number does NOT include any of the hundreds of attacks that occur northern and eastern Jerusalem in places such as Jebel Mukaber, Issawiya, Aisooia, Beit Hanina, and Shuafat.
TODAY’S BLOG:
We continue our series today on the three synagogues that your humble servant visited last Sunday in the Old City of Jerusalem: the Tiferet, the Karaite, and the Hurva.
Today we are looking at the least well known of the three but the oldest synagogue in the Old City by hundreds of years–the Karaite Synagogue which is located across the street from the Tiferet.
Note “Karaite” in red just above the star that signifies the location of the Karaite Synagogue.
First, a short historical and explanatory digression.
The Karaites date back to the exile in Babylonia after the destruction of the First Temple. They differ dramatically from most Judaism today because they do not accept the Talmud and Mishnah–in other words, they reject oral rabbinical law and instead only follow what is directly written in the Torah and the 24 books of the Tanach.
How does this make the Karaites different?
For one thing, Karaites believe that Judaism comes from patrilineal not matrilineal descent because the Torah has multiple passages to that effect; in other words, if a person’s father is Jewish, that person is Jewish. For another, Karaites do not separate meat and milk except in the literal case of a mammal being cooked in its mother’s milk. In other words, there are no separate dishes for each because there are no kosher restrictions in this regard.
Essentially, the Karaites believe that rabbinical interpretation has contaminated Judaism.
Now back to the story of the Karaite Synagogue.
It was the Karaite leader Hakham Anan Ben-David who led a large Karaite community to Jerusalem out of Babylonia some time between the years 750 CE and 850 CE. According to the Cairo Geniza, the Karaites–also known as the Bnei Mikra— established their homes on the Mt. of Olives across the wadi from the rabbinical community that inhabited the South Hill area near the Gihon Spring that was home to the city of David. Interestingly, the Geniza documents show that the Karaite Jews and Rabbinical Jews lived together with no problems and even intermarried.
At the time, Jerusalem was controlled by the Abbasid Caliphate which permitted the Karaites to build a place of worship within the Old City walls. However, according to a traditional story, the Muslims would not permit the synagogue to have windows. Hence, the Karaite Synagogue was built underground in its current location.
It came to have the name “The House of Prayer of the Sons of the Scriptures.”
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Yet through the centuries, the synagogue has had its difficult moments and was totally destroyed twice: once in 1099 CE by the crusaders (Saladin permitted it to be rebuilt shortly after his conquest), and again in 1948 by the Jordanians and their local Arab friends.
Part of the Karaite compound (mikve, well, apartments) destruction in 1948–the synagogue itself was underground. This was part of the Jordanian/Palestinian ethnic cleansing of the Old City of Jerusalem.
In 1982, a major renovation took place that built what we see today.
Here are some photos that your humble servant took last Sunday:
This is a picture of the Tiferet synagogue that I took while standing in the doorway of the Karaite compound. Remember how we pointed out yesterday that the Tiferet is now surrounded by metal fencing as archaeological work is done inside. The doorway to the Tiferet is about 5 steps away from the doorway to the Karaite.
The doorway to the Karaite Compound (the Karaites consider the Synagogue to be a “Temple”–hence one must be purified before entering):
I took this picture of the door to the Karaite compound from just in front of the Tiferet Synagogue. Note that this is not the door to the synagogue which is under the courtyard that you can see just beyond the door.
For many years the Karaites were ostracized in Israel because of the power of rabbinical Judaism here–but now they are recognized as a “legitimate” strain of Judaic practice.
The Israel National marker beside the Karaite front door.
A peephole into the Synagogue:
There are no windows to the outside in the synagogue, but there are two skylights overhead. This is the view through one of them. If you look closely, you can see some of the interior.
The Karaite numbers have begun to rise in recent years. Not only are their Karaite synagogues in Jerusalem and Ashdod–but also in Istanbul and even near San Francisco.
Inside the Karaite Synagogue in Jerusalem; there are no windows to the outside, and no one is seated in chairs. Karaite worshipers pray while seated or prostrated on the floor (picture: Times of Israel–no service was taking place when we were there last Sunday).
In conclusion today, your humble servant would strongly suggest that you visit the Karaite Synagogue when you are in Jerusalem–you will travel back in history.
Tomorrow we move to the Hurva.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.