The Whys (Wise) of Karaism

Why Karaism,

It’s a legitimate question and one that I have been asked quite frequently. Usually it’s more in the manner of, “Why would I practice an archaic, redundant, practically extinct, cultish, out-dated, ridiculed, persecuted, minimalistic, redactorial deficient, and unrefined religion?” Precisely because of everything they have identified Karaism as being in their view is the reason that I celebrate the purity and message of my Karaite faith. Archaic, yes, it is the original. The collector’s item so to speak; the way God handed it over and wanted it to be. Redundant, most certainly, because it has been copied over and over so many times and is seen as the platform upon which Rabbinical Judaism, Christianity and Islam have been built but like so many things that have been copied, it is only the original that retains the necessary qualities that were essential. Practically extinct, well that is what happens when people abandon teachings that were designed to uphold morality, upright behavior, the practice of brotherhood and the essence of humanity. No one can argue with me that in today’s society these qualities have been lost and considered by many useless because they prohibit the madness that has gripped mankind in its pursuit of wealth, power and lust. But there is still a huge difference between extinction and hanging on. And as long as we do exist, we are prepared to be the flag wavers and heralds of the restoration of those essential qualities. Cultish, perhaps that is what happens when you count your numbers in the thousands rather than millions. You become introverted and recluse. That was not as it was supposed to be. We were intended to be a ‘light unto the world’, God said so, and all that is required is a rekindling of that flame. Myself and others will carry that torch until such time that the flames spread across the world. Ridiculed and persecuted are paired and for those us who have ever been taunted by howling mobs we understand that their aggressiveness, belligerence, and generally misguided cruelty is nothing more than their expression of fear of the truth and the message that negates everything they preach and say. That has become the way this world deals with those that have something worthy to say, contrary to their own beliefs. They intimidate both through the media and physical assaults, knowing that in debate they would lose so they must resort to their baser instincts. All it does is confirm that which they have attacked was superior in every way. Minimalistic and redactorially deficient are proof that it was the word of God and not the creation of later editors that added their own personal touches for reasons that only served their own interests. Of the other religions that have taken the minimalism of the Torah and either rearranged, added, altered, restructured, and reinterpreted its teachings I can only wonder upon whose authority they did so. Certainly not God’s as he gave us everything we required when he related the Torah through Moses. And as for unrefined, these redactors and editors altered the unalterable and now look at the mess the world is in because one simple message was converted into hundreds mostly at odds with one another. These so called refinements by learned men have done nothing more than set brother against brother and bring mankind to the brink of destruction over and over again.

In The Beginning

What was true in the beginning is certainly true now. Within the Old Testament there are hundreds of laws. Laws on how to interact with our neighbours, our families and our friends. Laws on how to make oaths and keep promises. Laws on how to pay proper respect to God and our fellow man. Even laws that govern our business dealings with others. It’s not an easy five books to read in a single go in order to learn and understand all the laws contained within them. In fact I would hazard to guess that most people haven’t made it even half way through the Torah, preferring to set it aside and watch the Simpsons as the preferential means by which to learn about proper interrelationships with our fellow man. That was sarcasm and it wasn’t as if God was not aware that this would happen. So in essence he provided us with a table of contents commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments. All laws within the Old Testament in some manner pertain to these Ten Commandments. God provided us with a summary that we could learn and we could remember. Everything else was his commentary so that we could see how to apply these commandments properly. That being the case, then why has so much time and effort been expended by the various religions in order to establish sets of laws and decrees that sit over the body of laws that God had already provided? Why do we have oceans of legislation that in many cases run contrary to the laws stipulated and commanded by God? How is it that the various religions can contest these laws by adding volumes of material that supersedes them and then claim that they are still strict adherents? For those that practice Christianity remember that it was Jesus or Yeshua that said to his Minian and Nazarite followers, “I have not come to change the Laws of Moses but to confirm them.” Or to my Muslim cousins remember it was Mohammed that was quoted in Qur’an 2:248 when he spoke of the return of the Ark of the Covenant, “Should it be returned to the Jews then it will be a symbol and sign to the world that Judaism has always been the one true faith.” The Ark itself was merely a container. What it contained was the tablets of the Ten Commandments and the Law, as it is practiced by Karaites and therefore the existence and proclamation of Karism is the proof that Judaism has always been the one true faith. And to my Rabbanite brothers, whom have written extensively new sets of laws into their Talmud practically replacing all the originals as ordained by God and then arguing to the Nth degree as they tried to prove which interpretation of those new laws was superior to another in the Mishnah, I can only suggest that the burden of your writing is nothing more than a false monument to your own attempts to exceed God’s own words by drowning them in the sound of your own voices. All three of your so-called great religions have acknowledged that the keystone was nothing less than the laws and commandments as originally passed down to Moses by God at Sinai, so why have you spent so many centuries trying to bury the stone?

God Does Not Play Dice

As I sat yesterday with a good friend and she explained to me why she was so dissatisfied with the organized religions that she is familiar with, she mentioned to me that my writing on Karaism has provided her with the semblance of a spark of interest to look at the essential religion that is the Keystone of the other three and perhaps with some effort on my part it would rekindle a spark within her to find her path to God. But like so many in today’s world that have become disaffected and disenfranchised, she has chosen to adopt more natural beliefs to govern her day to day life. Science in its overwhelming rush to reproduce all the secrets of life in some ways has been responsible for this resurgence of what once was the Earth Mother and Sky Father faith, a belief in the natural laws of nature and though not actual entities unto themselves, they are something that people can touch and feel close to. Protecting the earth, the atmosphere, and the biosphere gives them a purpose and direction. There is even a determined effort by some groups to see that these beliefs in nature actually replace the belief in God as a supreme being that governs the universe. These Green Party adherents with their candle worshipping ceremonies and pagan adapted chants seek not only to gain political clout in their efforts to control but also have introduced their own cultish indoctrination to become the collective mind of their adherents. Mind control when one explores the paganistic rituals of Mother Goddess or Mother Earth was recognized very early on in mankind’s history and why it was soon learned that it was a force to be feared not revered. It led to numerous practices that violated mankind’s rights and one should not be easily fooled into thinking it cannot happen again. History does repeat itself and many of the anti-society activist groups that flaunt our laws, advocate violence to achieve their own ends, and breach the rights as individuals all have ties to these Green Parties in some way. Often it is the same people that are in positions of power in both camps. Nature is nothing more than a physical force, a natural process. It operates under strict sets of rules. Those attempting to worship these forces are missing the point. Whether it be an applied force or an initiated process, some consciousness at a much higher level had to set them in motion. Nature is nothing more than an extension of God’s implementation of a structured and patterned universe. And though he knew we would not become aware of this fact for a very long time after he provided the Laws to Moses, he included laws designed to protect the natural environment, such as sabbatical years for fields, prohibition of gathering fruit outside a certain distance from the tree, prohibition of gleaning all the fruits, provision of natural feed for wildlife, etc. All these laws and far more exist in the Torah. There are many scientists that now wish to argue the point I raised of a patterned and structured universe. By profession, I am a scientist in medical biotechnology yet I have no problem in reconciling the discoveries of science with my faith in God. If anything, every discovery only further reinforces and confirms that faith. Albert Einstein, one of the world’s premier scientists also found that same truth, with each discovery reaffirming his faith in God. When challenged in that regard, he uttered his belief that the universe is not a haphazard event that has no preconceived direction in his now famous line, “God does not play dice!” Yet, there remains a large body of scientist determined to prove him wrong, more dedicated it would seem to eradicating Einstein’s statement and therefore the existence of God, than the virtues of the pursuit of science with their unabated pursuit of random based physics, quantum physics and string theories. But what they refuse to admit is the existence of repeating patterns within the physical universe because if the patterns were acknowledged then it would automatically negate any randomness and would suggest it was by intentional design. As soon as you mention intentional design, then you have to acknowledge a higher power. The design is obvious to those that just sit back and look at what our modern sciences have taught us. To everything there is a central core and movement that surrounds it. Though at this time we only know of one universe, our universe is in motion but exactly what it is moving about or moving towards we do not know. Within our universe are countless galaxies and they are rotating around the central core of our universe. What is at that core we don’t know? Some say it is merely the size of a pinpoint from which are universe was created in the Big Bang. Others say there is an interdimensional black hole which will eventually engulf our universe and extrude us somewhere yet to be identified in a cosmic rebirth. Whatever this universe is rotating about, there is something at the core, of that science is certain. And each one of these galaxies in our universe rotate around their own central core; millions upon millions of stars dancing about this core in a preset pattern. And these stars, each with their own set of planets, asteroids, and comets providing a core around which these planets or similar navigate about, once again in a calculated and measurable manner. And these planets and planetoids, just like our earth will have a central core with layers and mantles that rotate around it with perpetual motion. And upon some of these planets will be life, and if it is an advanced life form then it will experience embryonic development beginning as a neurotube with everything else maturing about it as the fetus progresses through various stages. And this life will consist of cells, the cytoplasm of these cells filled with structures and organelles as they circulate about its nucleus. And these cells will consist of atoms, each with their own nucleus with electrons revolving about them constantly. And even now as we speak, science is exploring a whole new world consisting of subatomic particles and when they finally release their results I will bet that once again the concept of a Central Core will be repeated. You see, Einstein was right, God does not play dice. Randomness, if it was the overriding principle of the universe would be catastrophic. Everything would cease to exist because that outcome was just as plausible as its coming in to existence. So by definition, continuous survival at any level cannot be a random event and therefore it is being overseen by established physical rules. We also know that in order to have rules then they have to be established or created by something or someone. Therefore logic dictates that in order to have continuous survival this must be overseen by something or someone. This is nothing more than the impeccable logic of: If A=B and B=C, then it must hold true that A=C as well. All of which is clearly defined not only in the belief structures of Karaism but also in its precepts and ideology. And therefore in answer to the initial question of Why Karaism, I can safely answer through logical argument: If (A) my faith as a Karaite brings me closer to God’s direct words and laws since as I’ve demonstrated all other religions have layered these laws so heavily that they are barely discoverable, and (B) God’s laws are the prime direction of the Universal Laws of existence and lastly (C) the Universal Laws of existence are necessary for my and everyone else’s survival, then the logical argument where A=C, a proven and accepted concept would state that it is my Karaite faith which ultimately guarantees my and everyone else’s survival. If you cannot accept it on an argument of faith, then at least accept it on the logical one.