'שר משטמה' בחיבור קראי

In 1910, when Solomon Schechter published his Fragments of a Zadokite Work, which included leaves from two medieval copies of the Damascus Covenant that were preserved in the Cairo Genizah, the way was opened to investigate the influence of Qumran scrolls on early Karaism. It goes without saying that until the discovery of the Qumran scrolls in the Judean Desert, scholars who had recognized the relationship between the Damascus Covenant preserved in the Genizah and early Karaism could not know that in fact they were exploring the influence of Qumran on Karaism. Additional research after the discovery of the scrolls has shown that the Karaites attributed several laws and theological ideas, known to us only from Qumran, to the Sadducees. In this note I examine Yefet ben Eli's commentary to Exod. 32:1–4, in which he claims that the Sadducees believed in a figure he calls 'Sar Mastema' (Prince Mastema), the well-known demonic figure from the Qumran writings and Jubilees. I suggest that the Karaites could have learned about this figure from Qumran literature or from related pseudepigraphic works such as Jubilees.