Sermon to the Karaites

Awake, ye drunkards! (Joel 1:5). Our brethren in Israel, [sunk] in swooning sleep and indolence, wake up and weep over the House of the Lord . . . Gird yourselves and lament, ye priests; wail, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers [of my God]! (Joel 1:13). And now, our brethren in Israel, in all your cities, For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us (Jeremiah 4:8).

Know that the villains who are among Israel [say] one to another, “It is not incumbent upon us to come to Jerusalem, until such time as He shall gather us in, even as He had cast us abroad.” These are the words of those who draw the Lord’s wrath and are but fools. For had the Lord not decreed a precept upon us to go from the lands [of the Dispersion] to Jerusalem, [to pray] in mourning and bitterness, would we not have known with our own intelligence that it is for all objects of wrath to come to the gate of him who is wroth, in order to entreat him, as I have written above? How much more so when the Lord has [in fact] commanded the people of the Dispersion to come to Jerusalem and to stand constantly within it before Him, lamenting, fasting, weeping, mourning, [clad] in sackcloth and bitterness, day and night, as it is written: I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never [hold their peace, day nor night. Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, take ye no rest], and give Him no rest (Isaiah 62:6–7). [ . . . ]

It is therefore, incumbent upon you, O ye who fear the Lord, to come to Jerusalem and to dwell therein, in order to hold watches until the day when Jerusalem shall be rebuilt, as it is written: And give Him no rest (Isaiah 62:7). It is written also, Happy is the man whose [strength] is in Thee, in whose heart are the highways (Psalms 84:6), [that is to say], happy is the man whose reliance and strength is in the strength of the Lord, who does not say, “How shall I go to Jerusalem, [seeing that I am] in fear of brigands and thieves, and have no way to earn a livelihood in Jerusalem?” In whose heart are the highways refers to the aforementioned verse, Set thy heart toward the highway (Jeremiah 31:21). In whose heart are the highways, passing through the Valley of Weeping, [that is to say] Jerusalem, they make it a place of springs (Psalms 84:6–7), for the wellspring of learning is in Jerusalem, as it is written: All my wellsprings are in thee (Psalms 87:7). When they shall have done so, by coming to Jerusalem. [ . . . ]

Do not nations [other] than Israel come from the four corners [of the earth] to Jerusalem, every month and every year, in awe of God? What then is the matter with you, our brethren in Israel, that you do not do even after the manner of the nations of the [Gentile] lands to come [to Jerusalem] nor to pray [therein], as it is written: Neither have ye done after the judgments of the nations that are round about you (Ezekiel 5:7)? [ . . . ]

Therefore, our brethren in Israel, do not do thus, Hearken unto the Lord. Rise and come to Jerusalem, and let us return unto the Lord. But if you will not come because you are running about in tumult and haste after your merchandise, then [at least] send out of every city five men, together with their sustenance, in order that we might form a united company to supplicate our God continually upon the hills of Jerusalem, as is written in the aforecited verse, [I have set watchmen] upon thy walls, O Jerusalem (Isaiah 62:6). You will have no opening of the mouth before the Lord if you return not this day to the Lord’s Torah and to His precepts, as written in His Torah. For since the beginning of the Dispersion, and during the days of the kingdom of Greece, of the kingdom of the Romans, and of the kingdom of the Persians, the Rabbanites acted as princes and judges, and those who sought the Torah could not open their mouths on behalf of the Lord’s precepts, out of fear of the Rabbanites, for they were [in dread of them], until the advent of the kingdom of Ishmael. These latter always aid the Karaites in their observance of the Torah of Moses, and it is incumbent upon us to bless them [for it].

Now you are [living] in the midst of the kingdom of Ishmael, who are favorable to those who fix the new month by lunar observation. Why then are you afraid of the Rabbanites? God will help you. Rise therefore and be strong with [the strength of] the Lord’s Torah, and strengthen those whose hands have grown weak, as it is written: Strengthen ye the weak hands (Isaiah 35:3). Endeavor skillfully to teach the Lord’s precepts to all Israel, and admonish them with words of peace, and not of strife and contention, as it is written: And they that are wise among the people shall cause the many to understand, and further, and many shall join themselves unto them (Daniel 11:33–34). This verse refers to the kingdom of Ishmael, for by means of the kingdom of Ishmael did the Lord break the staff of the Rabbanites from over you. Rise therefore, [be strong] and do and the Lord be with the good (2 Chronicles 19:11).