Wednesday, 2 March 2016

Karaites Who Add

It is usually the accusation of Karaites against their Rabbanite cousins that they are violating the Torah which says "Do not Add."

Leviticus 19 forbids  shaatnez -
יט  אֶת-חֻקֹּתַי, תִּשְׁמֹרוּ--בְּהֶמְתְּךָ לֹא-תַרְבִּיעַ כִּלְאַיִם, שָׂדְךָ לֹא-תִזְרַע כִּלְאָיִם; וּבֶגֶד כִּלְאַיִם שַׁעַטְנֵז, לֹא יַעֲלֶה עָלֶיךָ. 19 Ye shall keep My statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; thou shalt not sow thy field with two kinds of seed; neither shall there come upon thee a garment of two kinds of stuff mingled together.

However, shaatnez is defined in Deut 22: 11 as   wool + linen

ייא  לֹא תִלְבַּשׁ שַׁעַטְנֵז, צֶמֶר וּפִשְׁתִּים יַחְדָּו.   11 Thou shalt not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.

 Some Karaites have traditionally forbade all mixtures, eg silk and cotton, etc.  the same critique applied to Rabbinic additionas to the Law apply equally to this type of Karaite adding.

Thus the TNK emet view is that adding is forbidden for everyone, regardless of what label you wear (no pun intended) . 

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