The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

30 WHAT’S INACALENDAR?
a. A married woman’s adherence to her holy seasons
A special clause in medieval marriage contracts between Rabbanite men
and Karaite women from the Cairo Genizah highlights the importance
attaching to the wife’s right to adhere to her schedule of holy seasons,
while also observing her husband’s. In addition to the routine, foremost
economic stipulations detailed in such an agreement (Cambridge, Taylor-
Schechter Collection T-S 24.1), the Rabbanite bridegroom David Hanasi
son of Daniel Hanasi, evidently a man of distinction, “also takes upon
himself not to force his wife Nasia to sit with him by the (light of the)
Sabbath candle, 14 to eat the fat covering the rump, 15 or desecrate her
festivals (which she is wont to keep in accordance with the Karaite calendar),
under the condition that she observes with him the (viz., his)
festivals.” The wife’s right to keep the holy seasons according to the
Karaite calendar and her duty to observe them also on the dates fixed in
the rabbanite cultic year guarantees that peace will reign in their home.
b. Priority of common time of observance
The timing of the “holy seasons” by schismatics in conformity with the
dates of their observance in the Jewish year was considered to outweigh
the divisive impact of dissent, even in respect to basic tenets of faith.
In his description of the seventh-century Karaite sect led by Abu4 (Isa4
al-Isfahani, the tenth-century historian al-Qirqîsa4nî relates the following
dialogue: “I asked (the Rabbanite) Jacob ibn Ephraim al-Shami ‘Why do
you encourage association with the followers of (Isa4 and intermarry with
them, although they attribute prophecy to men who are not prophets?’
He answered me: ‘Because they do not differ from us in the keeping of
the festivals.’” Qirqîsa4nî then mocks the Rabbanites who attach greater
importance to the observance of the festivals on the basis of a shared calendar
than to profound disagreements on issues of fundamental religious
significance. 16
In contrast, a full-fledged bona fide Israelite who does not join in the
observance of the hallowed seasons at the ordained times and adheres to
14. In strict adherence to the biblical commandment, “you shall not light a fire in
all your homes on the Sabbath day” (Exod 35:3), Karaite law prohibits the use of candles
on Friday night even if they were lit before the onset of the Sabbath, whereas rabbinic
halakah allows it.
15. Forbidden by ritual law and permitted by rabbinic halakah.
16. See Leon Nemoy’s translation of Abu Yusuf Ya(qub ibn Ishaq Qirqîsa4nî, Kitab
al-Anwar wal-Maraqib: Code of Karaite Law. I, 52. HUCA 7 (1930): 382. I am indebted
to Prof. Z. Ankori for bringing this text to my attention.