Qaraimits - Misplaced Pages

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Qaraimits (Template:Lang-ru) also called Qaraimizers (Template:Lang-ru); Bezshapochniki (Template:Lang-ru); Sabbatarians-Karaims (Template:Lang-ru); Russian Qaraims (Template:Lang-ru) Russian Karaites (Template:Lang-ru); Qaraimit-Sabbatarians (Template:Lang-ru) and Karaite-Subbotniks/Subbotnik-Karaites are one of the three sects of Molokan-Sabbatarians (Template:Lang-ru) including Talmudist-Subbotniks (Template:Lang-ru also called Gers Template:Lang-ru) and other Sabbatarians which comprised the so-called "Judaizers" (Template:Lang-ru) among Tambov Oblast's Spiritual Christians (Template:Lang-ru).

Qaraimits are normally described as a modern sect of Judaizers distinguished by their interest in Qaraimizm (Template:Lang-ru the ways of the Qara'im) and the Pentateuch studying the Old Jewish religion, like Karaite Jews, through a plain reading of the Bible rather than just trusting Talmudic Judaism blindly. It is important to note that although interested in the methods of the Qara'im they did not actually adopt Karaite Judaism. Unlike Karaite Jews, common Qaraimits are not circumcised and otherwise resemble other Sabbatarian Judaizers.

Distribution

Besides Tambov they also lived in Saratov Oblast, Astrakhan Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, Stavropol Krai, Samara Oblast, Khakassia, Irkutsk Oblast along the Molochna River in New Russia, in Krasnodar Krai, Armenia and Azerbaijan and along the Russian Empire's boarders with Persia. While not all statistics for all provinces are readily available, there are more than 2500 in Privolnoye, Azerbaijan alone.

History

The history of the Qaraimits is an interesting testimony to how Qaraimizm rather than Western Protestantism influenced the development of low-Church Christianity in Russia. The Judaizers entered Russia from Lithuania in the XV century as a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. This gives Qaraimits a very distinct origin from other "Qaraite" groups also called Qaraims (Template:Lang-ru) and Staroiudeyami (Template:Lang-ru) which could include the Lithuanian Karaites and Crimean Karaites. Under Russian authority these three groups could be treated together with the names Qaraims (Template:Lang-ru), Russian Qaraims (Template:Lang-ru) and possibly also Russian Karaites (Template:Lang-ru) sometimes making it difficult to distinguish exactly which group is intended without careful examination of the context.

Characteristics

From 1870 they began to use the "Everyday Prayers for Qaraims" by Avraham Firkovich (Vilna 1870) for their liturgy, which in 1882 they were allowed to publish in Russian as "Порядок молитв для караимов". It was based on the Siddur tefillot ke-minhag ha-Karaim by Isaak ben Solomon Ickowicz. In 1935, Simon Firkovich introduced The Lord's Prayer into the Karaite Siddur under such inflluence. Unlike Crimean Karaites the Russian Karaites used the term karaimskii iazyk (Karaim language) to designate Hebrew and not the Turkic Karaim language. which is significant because unlike the Judaized Turkic of the Karaims, the Tatar language among Russian Karaites of the Volga had not the slightest trace of Hebrew loan words. Ironically it was the Crimean Karaites not the Qaraimized Sabbatarian Christians who escaped the Holocaust. At Babi Yar it was reported that they were singing "Let us face death bravely as Christ did" on their way to extermination. This may be because the Qaraimits while not denying their Russian origins, do regard themselves as Israelites albeit only in the Spiritual sense unlike modern Crimean and Lithuanian Karaites, though this was not always the case. The Qaraimits contacts with the Crimean and Lithuanian Karaites, who, to a degree, exemplified for them “a Jewish model to be imitated”, "were occasional and never formally arranged since, in particular, normative Karaism denied the acceptance of proselytes and regarded the very existence of a community of Karaites of non-Jewish origin senseless."

Organization

A "Central Spiritual Board" for the Russian Qaraim Abroad is mentioned in 2010 and again in 2011

References

"Overview of Russian sects and persuasions" by T.J. Boutkevitch pages 382-384
S.V. Bulgakov "Handbook of heresies, sects and schisms" under Qaraimits
Valvl Chernin "The Subbotniks"
Velvl Chernin, "Subbotnik Jews as a sub-ethnic group"
S.V. Bulgakov "Handbook of heresies, sects and schisms" under Judaizers
Alexander Lvov, "Plough and Pentateuch: Russian Judaizers as Textual Community" excerpts available online 1, 2, 3
Mikhail Kizilov "Karaites in North-Eastern Europe: The Karaite Community of Troki between the Two World Wars"
Mikhail Kizilov "The Sons of Scripture: The Karaites in Poland and Lithuania in the Twentieth Century" page 91
Grigoriev V, Jewish sects in Russia . // Журнал Министерства внутренних дел. — ., 1846.P. 15. — p. 11-49 «…Заметим только, что наречие татарского языка , которым говорят Русские Караиты, не заключает в себе ни малейшей примеси еврейских слов… » («…We note only that the Tatar language, spoken by Russian Karaites, does not contain even the slightest impurity of Hebrew words…»)
Babi Yar: A Document in the Form of a Novel by Anatoly Kuznetsov translated by David Floyd (London: 1. Cape, 1970), p. 95
Velvl Chernin, "Subbotnik Jews as a sub-ethnic group"
Hannelore Müller "Religionswissenschaftliche Minoritätenforschung. Zur religionshistorischen Dynamik der Karäer im Osten Europas" page 74
Barry Dov Walfish "Библиография Караитика: Аннотированная Библиография Караимов И Караимизма" pages xxi and 764

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