User:Java7837/676767
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Shalom! I am Nasir AlBayan IbnWakhar HaLewy. I am a descendent of Egyptian Karaites that made the trek to Jerusalem. I am a second generation american, and have been for the most part, absorbed into Jewish society. After I turned 17, I had an argument with my father (I am from California) and I joined the Navy to get away. I was sent to Iraq after they invaded Kuwait for "Operation Desert Shield". From that point forward, I did little in the way of religion whatsoever. I was befriended by the Jewish chaplain there, and attended their services off and on. After the Navy, I had an interesting business proposal and ended up in New Jersey. After some time, I became what the Jews here call religious, in that I pray three times a day, wear tefillin and wear a black suit, white shirt and borsalino. They then convinced me to begin learning in their yeshiva, Beit Medrash Govoha (BMG), assuring me that I had no need to convert, rather I was an apostate and merely needed to accept the oral law. I did so gladly, happy to have such "accepting" friends, but now things have changed. Whenever I bring up something that I learned as a child, they begin telling me that it was a sam mavet, and that I am an apikuros for thinking such things. I am upset, and don't know where to turn. I would like to reconnect to the Karaites if at all possible... I am prepared to move my entire family, quite my job and do what it takes to join my community again.
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I am familiar with BMG and its rabbanite status. Upon my arrival here (I got a job here in the technology field) I made friends with a few rabinical Jews whom immediately took me on as their "project." They befriended me, spent time learning Tanakh with me (Something that none of their Yeshivot teach). Over time they got brave and dropped the ball on my head that I was an "Apikuras", that I was wrong, everything I believed was heresy. They continued to bother me about it until I finally agreed to learn a bit of their "Torah" with them. As I learned with them, I got the attention of several prominent Rabbis of the community whom termed me to be a prodigy. They were all exceedingly pleased with the quick progress that I made having never seen a Gemara before. I was able to take apart the mishna, classify its arguments, and a great deal of the time, predict the outcome using my own system which at times did not appear until two or three dapim later. Through constant encouragement, I remained with them to learn. Over the last two years they have come to regard me as their own sort of success story. There are still a few whom know my background that see fit to treat me like the dust under their feet, but it matters little to me. As I have said for years, and the ones whom came before me said, Mi anokhi afar w'efer.
As far as my current level of observance, I keep Tahara - Tazria just so happens to be my "Bar Misweh" portion, as I was born Bet B'Abib (Nisan) so I am quite familiar with its laws. Mesora I have learned in great length as well, as Rabbinically, the two Parshiot are connected in Nissan (I had a Bar Misweh at a Habad establishment as there was no real gathering of Karaim where I grew up) and to this day, I keep the laws of tuma tahora (Kashrut) to the best of my abilites, though often times I find that as science advances, the food industry finds more and more ways to process food using tamei items. I have learned many of the parshiot of Wayikra in order to gather the many laws into a single notebook which I refer to regularly, including Wayikra and Sau. I pray twice a day with bowing and full prostration as my ancestors did, and I pray from a hand written siddur which my father made me compose as a child. I wear a covering on my head, and in general, behave as you would expect any Karaite to. I have however been seperated from my community for over fifteen years, and it is impossible to maintain an appropriate standard when not in the company of your fellows. I hope soon to rectify that situation.
- My handwritten siddur
- Me as a child