MARRIAGE WITH SECTARIANS

couple to force them to divorce, on pain of herem. In response to this outcry, Abulafia withdrew his heter.

The rabbis of Tiberias and Jerusalem , in their search for widespread support against Abulafia ’s ruling, had contacted, among others, the Chief Rabbi of Alexandria, Rabbi Eliyahu Hazan. He did not give them the hoped-for response. Hazan took exception to the quoted reliance on Rabbi Suzin, pointing out the absence of any actual quoted evidence that the Rishon le-Zion had ever pronounced the dictum attributed to him; there was only his disciple Rabbi Medini’s admitted“childhood memory” of such a proclamation against the Karaites . Hazan went on, in his response, to describe significant distinctions between different Karaite communities and insisted that each case regarding a Karaite should be judged according to that Karaite ’s uniquely relevant characteristics. The prohibition against admitting Karaites into the kahal, he avers, is “not absolute but conditional.” The Israeli rabbis responded by excommunicating him, which apparently did not concern him.

Hazan’s explanation of his halakhic stance vis-a-vis the Karaites is built on his rejection of the concept of safek mamzerut. This is, after all, in agreement with such halakhic giants as Maimo­ nides , who does not address the issue, and Radbaz , who dismisses it. Hazan’s analysis, however, goes further than his predecessors. He observes that the Karaites are organized into self-sufficient, independent kehillot, which do not turn to Rabbanite Jews for any legal or ritual functions. Hazan held, therefore, that since there was no chance of Rabbanites witnessing or officiating at a Karaite wedding, the ritual had no authenticity in the eyes of Rabbanite halakhah. Karaites , he observed, do not follow Rabbanite customs in matters of intimate relationships, and“furthermore, their leader

160