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Important New Discoveries
BRIEF: A rare books dealer in Jerusalem recently delivered a manuscript to us, written mainly in Karaite Judaeo-Tartar, for identification. The manuscript turned out to be a collection of poetry. The collection was composed by two Hakhamim, a father and son. Importantly, very importantly, there were a few items of Hebrew in the collection. What is significant about these items is two fold. One poem, written in 1936, clearly shows, at least on the part of the author, an awareness that Karaites are Jews. Given that this poetry originated at a time when Karaites in Eastern Europe had supposedly ceased identifying themselves as Jews, this is quite significant. The poem is as below:
One of
the issues of debate in the Karaite community today is centered
around the use and, subsequently, pronunciation of God’s Name.
Certain elements within the community, admittedly the majority, have
refrained from pronouncing the Name (HaShem HaMeforash), and
use the Hebrew word for "Lord" (Adonai) as a
substitute for God’s Name. The other side of this debate contend
that historically Karaites have used God’s Name. According to
this contingent, use of HaShem HaMeforash has declined in the
community since the advent of Rabbanite influence; but, like the
Karaites of Khorasan mentioned by al-Qirqisani, consider the use of Adonai
in place of HaShem HaMeforash a grave error. It is
therefore quite significant that this manuscript contained a
pointed version of HaShem HaMeforash - not only showing that
Karaites at the time of the author (the early 20th century) knew the
pronunciation of HaShem HaMeforash, but also that how they
pronounced it is consistent with the pronunciation of those in the
community who use HaShem HaMeforash today. The text
is as below (enlarged to show the vowel-points):
