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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.
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.
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My handwritten siddur -
Me as a child
Activities
editI research old Karaite documents and manuscripts, as well as the changes and adaptations of the liturgy of the Karaites over the years. I am currently involved in sorting through many ancient ketubot and other legal documentation from a cairo geniza. My current desire is to collect various siddurim used by Karaites from around the world, and compile a single siddur containing excerpts from all of them with commentaries based upon country of origin. It has been my experience that most modern siddurim are very similar, some from Europe adding an extra pasuk or taking one away here and there, but the older ones provide invaluable insight into our thought process over the years, and how we as a people have changed. If you have an older prayer book and access to a scanner, I would love to hear from you! Shoot me a mail.
I also work in graphic design. I design custom magazine ads, newsletters, publications, internet sites and photo corrections/enhancements. I do all of my work on the Macintosh platform. I own a Mac Mini Intel, a MacBook Pro, and an iMac Intel. All dual core Intel machines. They truly make my work easy! I use a variety of programs including iWork, Photoshop, OmniGraffle, Gimp, Aperture, a variety of web programs including Macromedia products, Transmit for uploading, and lots of other small time stuff to take care of the little details, and then import it back into the larger program for completion.
My Family
editMy grandmother Rahel was the daughter of Aron and Sophi Barukh. My grandfather, Yehezkel Qudsi was the son of Dawid and Naomi. My grandmother Dineh Marzuk was the daughter of Yussef and Sara Marzuk. My grandfather was the son of Yusef and Freida. Freida was an Al-Zifrani before marrying Yusef AlBayan. I have attempted a rather pathetic rendering of the bloodline to assist in visualization. If anyone reading happens to be related to me, I would love to reconnect. I left California in 1990 and have not spoken to a single family member since.
I am not aware of the name of the town from which my fathers family originates. All I remember being told is that it was a village located on the "Nahar Prat" as it is called. Regarding Spain, their tenure was a brief one which lasted perhaps until 980 or 1000 Common Era when my family and perhaps others were forcibly expelled. The name De'Qordobairo, which was used by my family for a time, to the best of my knowledge, is a fairly common name which refers to any group of peoples living in the region of Puerte' De'Qordoba or Porte De'Qordobaira in Portugese or Spanish respectively, which in itself is not tied to a particular branch of Judaism, rather to a geographical location, though I am told a rabbinic family of kaballists also employed the name.
To do
editI am currently collectiong various Karaite Siddurim for examination, comparison and will then be composing an article on the differences from the Middle Eastern and European sources, as well as composing a Siddur with commentary which contains all of the prayers. It will include Shabbat, Hol, Yamei Tobim, Habdalah, as well as Berakhot. It will contain full commentary on our sources for the berakhot, as well as the evolution of prayer and our gradual acceptance of some rabbinical traditions.
More coming soon