Posted by fschmidt on
URL: https://coalpha.arkian.net/Choosing-a-Church-tp5806523p6993923.html

I attended a Karaite service in Daly City a week ago.  Most of the Karaites there are from Egypt.  The religion is clearly ethnic and not at all dynamic.  There is no interest in growing the religion at all.  The service felt similar to Orthodox Jewish service.  It is clearly conservative with no compromises with modern culture.  The seating area had 3 sections, one which was all men, one all women, and one mixed.  I don't know if this is the rule or just convention.  But I think it makes a lot of sense since this way everyone has their choice about what they prefer.  No one can reasonably complain about this seating arrangement.  During the service, right after the Torah reading, there was open discussion about it.  This consisted of very direct debate.  I have never seen such tolerance of conflicting opinion in a religious service.  The service was about 2 hours long which is shorter than Orthodox Judaism.  It had the usual type prayers as well.  It was in Hebrew, of course.  After the service was lunch.  The people seemed quite reasonable and were clearly more intelligent than those attending Chabad services.  This may be related to the fact that they generally aren't Americans.  Overall I was very impressed with the Karaite service and I can't think of anything that I didn't like about it.  This is clearly my favorite religion.