Editing Judaism (section)

===Karaites and Samaritans===
[[Karaite Judaism]] defines itself as the remnants of the non-Rabbinic Jewish sects of the [[Second Temple]] period, such as the [[Sadducees]]. The Karaites ("Scripturalists") accept only the Hebrew Bible and what they view as the [[Peshat]] ("simple" meaning); they do not accept non-biblical writings as authoritative. Some European Karaites do not see themselves as part of the Jewish community at all, although most do.<ref name="JEkaraites">{{JewishEncyclopedia|first1=Kaufmann |last1=Kohler |author-link1=Kaufmann Kohler |first2=Abraham|last2=Harkavy| author-link2= Abraham Harkavy |title=Karaites and Karaism|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9211-karaites-and-karaism}}</ref>

The [[Samaritans]], a very small community located entirely around [[Mount Gerizim]] in the [[Nablus]]/[[Shechem]] region of the [[West Bank]] and in [[Holon]], near [[Tel Aviv]] in Israel, regard themselves as the descendants of the Israelites of the Iron Age [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|kingdom of Israel]]. Their religious practices are based on the literal text of the written [[Torah]] (Five Books of Moses), which they view as the only authoritative scripture (with a special regard also for the [[Book of Joshua (Samaritan)|Samaritan Book of Joshua]]).
[[File:Beta_Israeli_Kahen_at_the_Western_Wall.jpg|thumb|Beta Israeli [[Kahen]] at the Western Wall]]