To discover the basic mood of Jewish law, it is not sufficient to study one enactment or another; we must cover whole sections of the law to see if there is one prevalent mood, or a tendency toward a certain consistency. Let us consider, for example, an extreme case, the case of the Karaites . These people, unlike ourselves, are a separate sect, a separate community with no communal cooperation or fellowship with the rest of Israel They reject outright the entire rabbinic tradition. They have been hostile and have been met with hostility since the days of the Gaon Saadia almost down to our day. One would therefore think that this hostile sect, the occasion of so much controversy, would be rejected outright as a potential part of the Jewish people, that their marriages would be declared invalid and that any intermarriage with them would be prohibited unless after conversion. Certainly this would seem to be the case if one merely judges by the statement of Moses Isserles (Even Haezer 1V, 37) in which he says it is forbidden to enter into marriage with Karaites because all of them are under suspicion of bastardy and we do not even accept them if they wish to return. Actually this statement of Isserles is based upon one opinion, cited by Joseph Caro in his Bet Joseph from a responsum of Rabbi Samson. But this opinion of Rabbi Samson is only one opinion. There are contrary opinions of such various shades that the law of the marital status of Karaites is a vast confusion.
The fullest discussion of the question is found in the responsa of Jacob Castro, of Egypt (died 1610), who was greatly honored by Joseph Caro . In his response(Ohalei Yaakov 33)he quotes the various opinions of the great authorities on both sides of the question. An analysis of his large and complete responsum essay will reveal Something of the spirit of the halakhah in this regard. It becomes
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