142 Mark Washofs
60. See, in general, see Resp. HaRambam, ed. Blau, nos. 449 and 465. In the former, we get a look at how this conciliatory policy worked with respect to the same particular, concrete halakhic issue that will concern us below: may Karaites be counted in a minyan? He answers in the negative, not because the Karaites are minim or apikorsim and therefore deserve to be excluded from the Jewish community, but because their rejection of the Oral Torah includes a rejection of the midrashic basis for the requirement of a minyan in the first place(B. Megilah 23b and parallels). This approach solidifies the equation of the Karaites with the Samaritans , who under Talmudic law are not considered part of the community but yet are not subject to all the strictures placed upon the heretic.
61. R. David ibn Zimra(Radbaz ), commentary to Yad, Mamrim 3:3. Compare R. Yosef Karo ’s more diplomatic words(Kesef Mishneh ad loc.):“this is Rambam ’s own opinion, which he also states in his Commentary to Mishnah Hulin.”
63. Radbaz refers here to Resp. Rambam , ed. Blau, no. 449, where Maimonides relies on a ruling by Rav Hai Gaon.
64. M. Shabbat 19:6; Yad, Milah 2:4. 65. Aaron b. Yosef Harofe, d. 1320.
66. Resp. Radbaz 2:796, which is an extensive analysis of the Karaite problem with respect, primarily, to marriage. The seemingly ironic conclusion of this negative teshuvah is that Rabbinites are permitted to marry Karaites . The latter are not tainted by the suspicion of mamzerut, even though their divorces are not conducted according to rabbinic law. This is because, as heretics, they are not valid witnesses, so their marriages does not possess the sort of halakhic validity that would require a valid divorce.