MARRIAGE WITH SECTARIANS

EVIDENCE OF KARAITE-RABBANITE INTERMARRIAGE

In the centuries following the destruction of the Karaite spiritual and theological center in Jerusalem , Karaism experienced a decline in the East. Egypt was a notable exception: there the community flourished alongside the Rabbanite community. Some Jews were apparently comfortable following precepts of both sects simultaneously, and the evidence of the Cairo Genizah would seem to indicate that this tolerance of ideological differences extended to marriage arrangements between the two sects. How many instances of intermarriage were there? Baron comments that intermarriage was neither“frequent nor in any way encouraged by the leaders,” but Mann speaks of“numerous cases,”” and Maimonides , who certainly knew of such marriages, did not prohibit them, as we shall soon see.

These intersectarian marriages were demonstrably contracted between mutually respectful religious equals. Mann’s study of ketubot from Fostat and Jerusalem legalizing marriage between Rabbanites and Karaites in the eleventh and twelfth centuries demonstrates that each document details conditions meant to safe­guard the religious freedom of both the Karaite and the Rabbanite spouses. Indeed, they include a clause that explicitly avers“mutual respect for their different religious practices.” Interestingly, at least as far as the evidence of these ketubot indicates, neither sect felt the recognition of the other’s legitimacy—the recognition that the phrase“these and those are the words of the living God ”— presented an inordinate threat to itself.

In the case of the Fostat marriage of the Nasi David, son of the Palestinian Gaon Daniel ben Azaryah, to the daughter of the

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