Karaite Judaism or
Karaism and more accurately
Qaraite Judaism or
Qaraism, ( or ; ") is a
Jewish movement characterized by the recognition of the
Tanakh alone as its supreme legal
authority in
Halakha (Jewish
religious law) and
theology. It is distinct from mainstream
Rabbinic Judaism, which considers the
Oral Torah, as codified in the
Talmud and subsequent works, to be authoritative interpretations of the
Torah. Karaites maintain that all of the
divine commandments handed down to
Moses by God were recorded in the written Torah without additional Oral Law or explanation. As a result, Karaite Jews do not accept as binding the written collections of the oral tradition in the
Midrash or
Talmud.