Jewish Religious Movements - Karaite Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism

Karaite Judaism and Rabbinic Judaism

Most streams of modern Judaism developed from the Pharisee movement, which became known as Rabbinic Judaism (in Hebrew Yahadut Rabanit - יהדות רבנית) with the compilation of the oral law into Mishna. After the destruction of the Second Temple and the Bar Kokhba revolt, the other movements disappear from historical records.

Karaite Judaism (in Hebrew Kara'im - קראים - "readers") started in the 9th Century when Anan Ben David and his followers rejected the oral law. Karaites accept only the Tanakh as divinely inspired, not recognizing the authority the Talmud and the Midrashim.

In the 10th century, the Karaites were believed to have comprised about 10% of the world's Jewish population. At the time of the traveler Benjamin of Tudela in the 12th century, Karaites were widely dispersed around the eastern Mediterranean, both in Islamic areas and the Byzantine Empire. Benjamin describes Karaite communities in many of the places he visited.

In the early 20th century, small Karaite communities remained in Egypt, Turkey, the Crimea, and Lithuania. Today, there are about 30,000 Karaite Jews in the world, most of whom live in Israel. Traditionally, Rabbinic Judaism has regarded the Karaites as Jewish, but with an incorrect philosophical understanding of the Torah.