Letter to Jacob ben Samuel

I have come from Jerusalem to caution the sons of my people, and who would hasten to take heed of this matter except the Karaites who meditate in the Law of the Lord? But you, why were you angered when I came to learn and to teach, to sit with the notables and the scholars of my congregation, and to lead the seduced ones among the Lord’s people away from the forbidden kinds of food which their Rabbanite forerunners had allowed them to eat, such as foods prepared by Gentiles? These forerunners even caused them to think lightly of matters of ritual cleanness and uncleanness and of sexual intercourse with women who have recently been confined. They said that it was permissible to take and use oil from vessels owned by Gentiles and made out of camels’ hides, or beverages and sweetmeats made by Gentile confectioners, or to use flour milled by Gentiles who do not first cleanse the grain from impurities and mice droppings. That is why I have come, in the Lord’s Name, to caution them. . . .

And now, my brother Jacob ben Samuel, know that I have come from Jerusalem in order to caution against such things which the Rabbanite forerunners have done—and these are but few out of many—and to turn the hearts of those who fear the Lord back to His Law. Would that I were able to go into every city to warn and to reawaken the Lord’s people, for is it not written: Go through, go through the gates, clear ye the way of the people (Isaiah 62:10), and Strengthen ye the weak hands (Isaiah 35:3), and Cast up, cast up the highway (Isaiah 62:10), and again Clear ye the way of the Lord (Isaiah 40:3)? Do you not know that there is no stumbling so bad as the stumbling of him who stumbles on an evil way? . . . Yet inasmuch as you have uttered out of your mouth words that are wicked, and out of your heart a thought that is not good, and have abused and denounced me, I know that you have spoken in a way that is not good, for he who holds in his heart the fear of the Lord guards his soul from the taint of wrongdoing and does not expose himself to guilt. . . .

It is not enough for you Rabbanites that you neither admonish others nor oblige yourselves and others to repent; you even look with hostile eyes upon the preaching of an admonisher like me, yet it is written: He that rebukes a man shall in the end find more favor than he that flatters with the tongue (Proverbs 28:23). [ . . . ]

This is the practice of Karaite Israelites who have sought God’s pleasure and secluded themselves from the desires of this world. They have given up eating meat and drinking wine and have clung to the Lord’s Law and have stood in assiduous watch before the doors of His Temple. Because of the greatness of their grief and the depth of their sighing, they have lost their strength to stand up against all stumbling blocks, and the skin of their bodies has become wrinkled with premature senility. Yet notwithstanding all this they forsook not their goal, nor did they relinquish their hope; rather they continue to read the Law and interpret it, acting as both teachers and pupils, turning many persons away from evildoing, and saying, “O all ye who are athirst, come ye to the water!” They have abandoned their merchandise and forgotten their families; they have forsaken their native land and left palaces in order to live in reed huts. They have left the cities to go to mountains, they have suffered bitter calumny, and they have doffed handsome garments to don sack cloth, sighing and wailing and crying over Zion’s disaster and rolling in the dust of ashes. May God fulfill regarding them His promise to turn the ashes covering the heads of Zion’s mourners into an ornament of splendor. [ . . . ]

God forbid, God forbid that I should keep silent and inactive! I know and I have heard of some of the shepherds and leaders of the Lord’s people who have set themselves up as their pastors and who assert that they are disciples of the Palestinian academy of the Sanhedrin, yet they come into Jewish homes on the Sabbath to eat and drink in company with Gentile men who also eat and drink alongside them in the drinking chamber, and they mix with them as if they were as ritually immaculate as the children of Aaron the High Priest, without fear or awe or dread of the Lord’s wrath.

How can I keep silent when some Jews follow the customs of idolaters? They sit among graves of saintly persons and spend nights among tombstones, while they seek favors from dead men, saying, “O Jose the Galilean, grant me a cure!” or “Vouchsafe me a child!” They light lamps at the graves of saints and burn incense upon the brick altars before them and tie bowknots to the palm tree bearing the name of the saint as a charm for all kinds of diseases. They perform pilgrimage rites over the graves of these dead saints and make vows to them and appeal and pray to them to grant their requests.

How can I restrain myself when many Jews leave their houses on the Sabbath on their way to their synagogues, carrying various things, such as purses and pieces of apparel, upon their arms, while their wives wear jewelry? And as they do on weekdays, visiting from house to house, so do they also on the Sabbath.