Book of the Wars of the Lord

Sefer milḥamot ha-shem, Cantos 1, 2 (selections)

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About This Entry

The Book of the Wars of the Lord (Sefer milḥamot ha-shem) is one of the most scathing texts to have emerged from the bitter disputes between Karaites and Rabbanites in the ninth and tenth centuries. Salmon composed this work in Hebrew verse, perhaps in response to Se‘adya Ga’on’s verse polemic “I shall take up my parable.” In it, Salmon mentions a parallel Arabic version, which he likely wrote in prose. He uses his knowledge of biblical and rabbinic literature to undermine the authority of rabbinic tradition and specifically Se‘adya’s defense of that tradition. The poetic form of this text suggests it was intended for public performance; a Karaite audience would probably have found it highly entertaining.

Canto I

To you I call, O men—

Hearken to my explicit words,

Reinforced, clad, enveloped, and robed

With proofs as solid as onyx and sapphire.

When I was at the age of vanity,

I did search for the right road for my course.

That I might learn, as well as teach, in the midst of my Karaite congregation,

And I sought to clear the stones from my path.

I was a stranger in a foreign land,

Investigating and searching the ways of the Law.

And I saw in the midst of the Jewish congregation

A man¹ devoid of a good heart and straying away from justice.

He bent his bow to write complaints

And to remonstrate in all languages,²

To tear up improved roads

And to pervert with nonsense and trifles the highway of understanding.

I understood his purpose and was overcome with apprehension,

And my wrath was kindled like a burning fire;

And I was seized with zeal for the sons of Judah,

And for the Almighty, and for the Book of the Testimony.

And I was afraid of the Day of Judgment and Retribution,

Lest His wrath should burn with anger.

Therefore I composed a double rejoinder against him,

In the language of Eber, and also in that of the sons of Dumah.³

This shall be my consolation in my exile,

That there are learned men to investigate my words fairly,

Who will know that I speak out of zeal for God,

So that the men of my congregation might not be led astray.

He stated in his misleading discourse,

And he did utter the assertion,

That the Almighty chose to reveal Himself to Moses

At Mount Sinai, to give him two Laws for His chosen people.

The commandments of the one Law were set down in writing,

While the commandments of the other were kept upon the tongue.⁴

Moreover, they were both to be, into everlasting eternity,

An heirloom for the congregation of the seed of the perfect ones.

My spirit advised me to reply to him in this matter,

And to place my answer among my congregation in a written epistle,

In order to remove the stumbling block, and to clear the path of stones,

So that the flock of Israel would not go astray into the waterless desert of heresy.

But rather that they would study it attentively,

So that my congregation might not be seduced by what is hidden from them.⁵

And I hope that as my reward God Almighty

Will let me behold His good tidings in Zion. [ . . . ]

I shall begin here with another argument,

Which I shall mention now, without delay,

And I shall ask and demand a reply to it

From everyone who holds to the oral Law and has given his preference to it.

You say that the Rock has given Israel two Laws,

One which is written, and one which was preserved in your mouths.

If this is as you say,

Then indeed your deeds are but falsehood and rebellion against God.

The Holy One has given you an oral Law,

So that you would recite it orally,

For, say you, He had deemed it, in His wisdom, a laudable command.

Why, then, did you write it down in ornate script?⁶

Had the Merciful One wished to write it down,

He would have had it written down by Moses.

Now did He not give it to you to be studied orally,

And had He not ordained it not to be inscribed in a book?

Yet they altered God’s alleged words and wrote it down.

And instead of studying it orally they transferred it into writing.

How, then, can their words be believed, seeing that they have offended grievously?

They cannot withdraw from this contradictory path.

They wrote down both Laws, thus contemning the commandment of the Almighty.

Where, then, is the oral Law in which they place their trust?⁷

Their words have become void and meaningless,

And out of their own mouths have they testified that they have drawn God’s wrath upon themselves.

Canto II

I have discovered in my heart another argument,

A handsome one, and majestic enough

To be placed as a crown for the Karaites,

To be their ornament, pride, and glory.

I have looked again into the six divisions of the Mishnah,

And behold, they represent the words of modern men.

There are no majestic signs and miracles in them,

And they lack the formula: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron.”

I therefore put them aside, and I said, There is no true Law in them,

For the Law is set forth in a different manner,

In a majestic display of prophets, of signs, and of miracles;

Yet all this majestic beauty we do not see in the whole Mishnah.

Translated by Leon Nemoy.

Notes

I.e., Sa’adiah.

I.e., in both Hebrew and Arabic.

Eber was the progenitor of the Hebrew nation (Genesis 10.24); Dumah was one of the sons of Ishmael, the progenitor of the Arab nation (Genesis 25.14). Salmon means that he planned to compose two versions of this epistle, one in Hebrew and the other in Arabic.

I.e., preserved orally.

I.e., by Sa’adiah’s ungodly teaching, the wickedness of which would remain hidden from the congregation unless I exposed it.

I.e., if God had actually revealed the mishnaic tradition and ordered Israel to preserve it orally, why did you write it down, thus flagrantly disobeying His explicit command?

Since this alleged oral Law has been committed to writing and has ceased being oral, where is the genuine oral Law, if there be such a one?

Credits

Salmon ben Yerūḥim, “From the Book of the Wars of the Lord of Salmon ben Jeroham,” from Karaite Anthology, ed. and trans. Leon Nemoy (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1952), 71–75. Used by permission of the publisher.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.