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realpolitik. We can learn from this study the eternal potential for a flexible, diverse, and creative corpus of Rabbanite Jewish law and of Rabbanite Jewish legal decisors that, like Rabbi Maselton, look carefully at an individual case or person and consider the social and legal context of a question equally crucial, or maybe more so, than looking over the shoulder to see what other rabbis are ruling. Such a decisor would, as the Radbaz and Rabbi Hazan, be open to conflicting views on the subject and would note differences in communities and in individuals. Then, such a one might add a healthy dose of realism about the everchanging world in which we live and, in the end, like Rabbi Hacohen, choose to“rely with all our strength on the rishonim” and decide to behave tolerantly toward those with whom they disagree or perhaps even accept the other as a Jew of integrity, deserving of the mutual respect of Jews , all of whom care for the tradition, live by the Torah as they study, understand and interact with it, and, in so doing, seek the presence of God .

What might we learn from all this for our day and time? The case of the Karaites does not inform a modern-day discussion of intermarriage of Jews and non-Jews , for only the most extreme of halakhists would call a Karaite a non-Jew. This exploration has more to say to the historically uninformed about the nature of Judaism , to those that believe that the only Ashkenazi heritage is sacred, and to the apologists of Reform Judaism that would deny its

sacred tenets—such as egalitarianism and autonomy—because of a

belief that only the Orthodox Jew is a Torah -true Jew and that the rest of us are lazy, ignorant, and without principles. Interestingly €nough, the story of the Karaites seems to teach that a Jewish movement with self-respect might actually be treated by other Jewish communities with respect.

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