Sacrum in the Karaite kenesa

From the 8th century AD on, the followers of the Karaite religion were involved in build ing their own houses of prayer (kenesas). These were created in many of the larger Karaite colonies around the world, including in Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Byzantium, Crimea, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland. In terms of architectural and interior design they resembled Jewish synagogues. The most important location within the kenesa was situated in the hall reserved for men: it was the holy cupboard, or hechał, which, in East Central Europe, was set into the southern wall of the house of prayer. In it were stored the parchment scrolls of the Torah: i.e. the Sacred Writings. In the Karaim nation that once existed, due to the small population and limited resources available, kenesas were built almost exclusively from wood. They existed, inter alia, in Lutsk, Trakai, Halych, Biržai, Kukizów and Nowe Miasto in Lithuania. Later on, houses of prayer built out of brick appeared in Vilnius and Wroclaw. Every Saturday, the liturgy was conducted in them by a member of the Karaite clergy: the hazzan. The main part of it consisted of the recitation in Hebrew (but later in the Karaim language) of selected passages from the Sacred Writings taken out from the holy cupboard. Town meetings and social events, as well as court deliberations and school activities, were also held in the kenesa, which in addition fulfilled the function of an archive and a library. Because there is currently no kenesa or hazzan in Poland, the most sacred place for the Karaites is their cemetery: the zierat. The only surviving Karaite cemetery is located in Warsaw, where all Polish Karaites seek to have those of their own religion whom they are close to laid to rest