Karaites and the Rabbinic Oral law

Sha

It seems we are not the only ones with 'the yoke of inheritance'...

Karaites do not accept the Rabbinic Oral Law as halakha because

They do not believe that the Oral Law is mentioned in the Tanakh.
They believe that all the Torah was written down during the lifetime of Moses and Joshua, and that there is only one Torah.
They believe the Oral Law "adds" or "takes away" from the plain meaning of the text.
They believe it to contradict the text at times.
The Mishnah and Talmud record the opinions of Rabbis who disagree with each other. The Rabbis explain that whenever there are such disagreements, "both opinions are the words of the living God". Karaites maintain that it is unreasonable to believe that God would contradict Himself.
The Tanach reports that the written Torah was lost and forgotten for over 50 years and only rediscovered by the Temple priests (2Ki 228, 2Chr 3415). Karaites believe that it is inconceivable that an Oral Law could have been remembered when the written Law was forgotten.

Theoretically, most historical Karaites would not object to the idea of a body of interpretation of the Torah, along with extensions and development of halakha. The disagreement arises over the perceived exaltation of the Talmud and the writings of the Rabbis above that of the Torah, so that, in the view of Karaites, many traditions and customs are kept which are in contradiction with those expressed in the Torah.

Funny how humanity makes the same mistakes every time!

Sha