On your second point, you are correct, the judges are required to submit to the Torah, and are not to add to or take away from it. Please feel free to show me how this fact de-legitimizes the 1st Century Sanhedrin that established the calendar we are to follow today? Are you saying the Pharisees and later the Rabbis (of orthodoxy) add to and/or take away from the Torah?

Your other point in your second point, you said that the Pharisees and later the Rabbis (of orthodoxy) usurped the title of judge. How? Please explain what they are doing that is wrong, as opposed to what you think they should be doing as right?

The New Sanhedrin can still meet in our day, if not at the Place, then at the next best location, Jerusalem – and this they have done. If the Place is not available to hold court, then one does what they can in light of the Diaspora. After all, the Sanhedrin first met in the Wilderness, and the precedent for keeping Torah as much as we are able is something even the Karaities say one should do.

You said the Rabbis and their Pharisaic predecessors have always stood in contravention to the Torah by adding, contradicting and detracting from it, and they never settled for judging according to the Torah alone.” You will be hard pressed to make that case here on this site. Much of what the Rabbis think is of the Rabbis, is in fact, of the written Torah – the truth of Messiah often being the clarifying link. Just because someone holds an opinion here or there that contradicts the Torah (again you’re hard pressed to prove that), doesn’t mean they are out to get you, or out to destroy the written Torah, and certainly doesn’t mean they are illegitimately qualified to serve on a beit din.
Your outright rejection of rabbinism makes it sound like you believe the majority of rabbis to be wrong in the majority of their teachings. This sounds interesting, if not unbelievable. I believe your judgment is either missing a few key pieces of data, or you have swallowed the anti-rabbinic Karaite line hook-line-and-sinker, if I may use your terms. :) If you have a topic or ruling besides the calendar topic that you’d like to discuss, email me.

“So we’ve learned the Pharisees and Rabbis have been in violation of the Torah from day 1 by usurping a position and status they had no business arrogating to themselves according to the Torah.”

That sounds like a pre-defined conclusion before examining the evidence. So far, no evidence has been presented concerning your “conclusion” here. Feel free to make the case in your next reply.

For the benefit of our readers, feel free to also make the case that the Sanhedrin was originally controlled by the Sadducees. So far you present generalities, and conclusions that have no logical merit. Here is your opportunity to get specific.

Shalom,

Israel

Based on your response saying “I reject the use of Derash, Remez and Sod to derive Halakhot,” it appears you see the presentation on Deut 16 and 17 I outlined above as not being Peshat. You repeated the phrase, “the topic changes,” several times in your exegesis of Deut 16 and 17 as if to make a point that each topic is totally unrelated to the topic that came before, but that assumption is totally unjustified, especially in light of the Peshat rule of juxtaposition, which it seems you may not be familiar with. My posted exegesis was completely peshat. There is a direct correlation between “Aviv” and the feasts that follow, and “judges” since these two topics are juxtaposed. Unless you believe HaShem does things at random, you will be hard pressed to deny any relationship between those two topics based on the rule of juxtaposition.

If your hermeneutic structure doesn’t include the rule of juxtaposition, then you can’t honestly say you hold to a peshat interpretation of scripture. When HaShem gave his Torah to Moses, it wasn’t a haphazard collection of instructions. It was one Torah, with multiple meanings and levels of understanding, a divinely composed document where everything has meaning, from the context, to the structure, to each and every individual letter, to the entire text. I suggest you read the article on this site title What is the Torah? Although I am not arguing the point here with my exegesis of Deut 16 and 17, the first letter of the first word of the Torah is alone sufficient to teach us that there is more to the Torah than peshat alone.

You say my exegesis is in error. Yet you failed to point out the error other than to say “the topic changes.” Friend, this belies your ignorance of the matter, for “the topic changes” is precisely the point of my argument. It is because the topic changes, that we see the topics are related directly. It is the responsibility of an honest Torah scholar to inquire of the text what the relation is between two juxtaposed topics.

Regarding who first received semicha:

I did find in: https://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArtPE.jhtml?itemNo=641260
.אנשי הסנהדרין החדשה הציגו קלטת שבה מספר הרב לבנוני כיצד קיבל, לכאורה, לפני שנים מספר את ההסמכה הראשונה מאז המאה ה-16, מראש בית דין צדק של העדה החרדית בירושלים, הרב משה הלברשטם

Interesting. I wonder why they give a different flow of events on the Sanhedrin site here:

http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php/Sanhedrin_Initiative
R’ Levanoni explained that Rabbi Moshe Halberstam, a senior Rabbi on Jerusalem’s Eda Hareidis, became the first samuch after receiving approval by Israel’s leading Rabbis.

It appears to me at first glance that R. Halberstam was decided to be the one to receive the first semicha, regardless of what R. Levanoni received. This does not de-legitimatize the semicha renewal attempt, but merely highlights an inconsistency as to who first received semicha, (R. Levanoni claiming credit in one, and in another, his pointing out that R. Halberstam received it) the shared conclusion between both accounts being the R. Halberstam eventually received it period regardless of who received it first, with the tacit acceptance of leading orthodox rabbis.

I am glad you have stated for the record that your position as a Karaite is to “do everything in my power to prevent bonafide Jews from drifting out of the fold to embrace JC as the messiah or more.” which is the point of my article written to warn other Messianic Jews falling for the Karaite deception.

Your apparent disdain for anything rabbinic is limiting your ability to communicate any solid arguments. Poisoning the well is a logical fallacy, and I suggest you move beyond it to make your point. Karaites preaching to Messianics do this very tactic – they poision the well of the rabbinic community and leadership, in an attempt to make themselves look more legit and therefore more authoritative. You are making my point concerning your deceptive agenda, by your statements on rabbinic Judaism, far more than I could alone.

I look forward to your rebuttal of the rule of juxtaposition.

Regarding your comment “that you accept JC as the Messiah, you’re really in no position to attempt to judge my Qaraite Jewish path since such a yardstick is ludicrous to me and you’re meddling in an intra-Jewish affair” – you have no place here to speak on this matter since you reject even the peshat of Torah as we shall soon explore together. JC may contradict HaShem and the Torah, but Messiah Yeshua does not. Rabbi Tovia Singer makes many excellent points as I use about 80%-90% of his arguments and materials in reaching both unbelievers and believers for the true Messiah, Messiah Yeshua shel Netzaret. Every person he’s debated loses their arguments, because they argue from a position of weakness, and I applaud his work for reaching Jews with the truth of Torah. I believe he’s misguided in understanding who the Messiah is according to the Torah, but for the most part he’s more accurate than most Christians and even Messianics that I know. Feel free to read the articles on this site concerning Messiah Yeshua, or if you want to email me concerning this matter, feel free to do so, rather than post a replay on it since I do not want to slant this topic off into a discussion on Yeshua.

First off, I am also Karaite. The premise of this article is completely wrong. Apparently, some believe all of us are attempting to gain authority over the Messianic Jews. Sheese, no, most assuredly no. Actually, it has been my experience that Karaites for the most part are not even interested in dealing with Messianic Jews, except Nehemia Gordon and a miniscule contingent of like-minded individuals.

It is equally disappointing some here believe our goal is to attack and/or disgrace the Orthodox in some way. Let me assure you all, the goal of the Karaites is purely to understand the Torah and it is our responsibility, as you should all know, for us to point out where our Jewish brothers have been misled. If one of our interpretations does not hold up to your understanding of the Torah, then you should point this out to us as well.

Lev 19:17 You shall not hate your brother in your heart; you shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

Shooting down the messenger rather than the message has no purpose. If your beliefs are correct, then they should stand up to scrutiny. Karaites are not interested in deception and most of us will insist you look up what we try to explain as well. Every Karaite is specifically taught to question anything anyone says and confirm it in the Torah — even what fellow Karaites tell one another. Aren’t all Jews supposed to follow the Torah to the best of their ability?

For those of you who somehow believe we are not considered Jews, you should be very very careful. An Oct 23, 1998 Jerusalem Post article called “True Believers” which describes a peculiar history:

http://qumran.com/Karaite_Information/karaite_true_believers.htm
Karaites may enter the country under the Law of Return and they are considered Jews,” says Dr. Nissim Dana of Bar-Ilan University’s Land of Israel department. “They refer to themselves as Karaite Jews, as opposed to the Samaritans who themselves say they are not Jews but Israelites, as the result of a split 3,000 years ago.”

This means specifically we are recognized by the state of Israel as Jews. It does not get any more major than that. Additionally, you should understand the reasons for judgement! Being cut off from the children of Israel has nothing to do with following or not following the Talmud. Therefore, I hope you will wisen up in the future.

Baruch YHWH
Binyamin

From “Jews of the Amazon” By Ariel Segal Freilich, Ariel Segal
The long-standing dispute between Orthodox rabbis and Karaites continued until 1973 when the chief rabbi of the Sephardic community of Israel, Ovada Yosef, recognized the Karaites as full-fledged Jews. This proclamation has not altered the agreement that allows the Karaites to conduct their own civil affairs.

http://books.google.com/books?id=9BBettxFjKsC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&dq=dispute+between+Orthodox+rabbis+and+Karaites+continued+until+1973+fledged&source=bl&ots=gJU6Pn5s_T&sig=ygWeosTf-Y1gRQQBeAkPzFn3ryw&hl=en&ei=ImjMSZaGCoHwsAPGl82qCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

First off, I am also Karaite. The premise of this article is completely wrong. Apparently, some believe we are attempting to gain authority over the Messianic Jews. Sheese, no, most assuredly no. Actually, it has been my experience that Karaites for the most part are not even interested in dealing with Messianic Jews.

It is equally disappointing some here believe our goal is to attack and/or disgrace the Orthodox in some way. Let me assure you all, the goal of the Karaites is purely to understand the Torah and it is our responsibility, as you should all know, for us to point out where our brother’s have been mislead. If one of our interpretations does not hold up to your understanding of the Torah, then you should point this out to us as well.

Lev 19:17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart; thou shalt surely rebuke thy neighbour, and not bear sin because of him.

Shooting down the messenger rather than the message has no purpose. If your beliefs are correct, then they should stand up to scrutiny. Karaites are not interested in deception and most of us will insist you look up what we try to explain as well. Every Karaite is specifically taught to question anything anyone says and confirm it in the Torah — even what fellow karaites tell one another. Aren’t all Jews supposed to follow the Torah to the best of their ability?

For those of you who somehow believe we are not considered your brothers, you should be very very careful. An Oct 23, 1998 Jerusalem Post article called “True Believers” which describes a peculiar history:

http://qumran.com/Karaite_Information/karaite_true_believers.htm
Karaites may enter the country under the Law of Return and they are considered Jews,” says Dr. Nissim Dana of Bar-Ilan University’s Land of Israel department. “They refer to themselves as Karaite Jews, as opposed to the Samaritans who themselves say they are not Jews but Israelites, as the result of a split 3,000 years ago.”

This means specifically we are recognized by the state of Israel as Jews. It does not get any more major than that. Additionally, you should understand the reasons for judgement! Being cut off from the children of Israel has nothing to do with following or not following the Talmud. Therefore, I hope you will wisen up in the future.

Baruch YHWH
Benjamin