Dor Daim

History

Since the early Middle Ages, the Yemenite Jewish community followed Maimonides on almost all legal issues, with a prayer book substantially identical to his Sefer Ahavah, as attested by Nahmanides, Obadiah of Bertinoro, and Yiḥyah Salaḥ. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Kabbalistic teachings, especially those of Isaac Luria, gained popularity in Yemen.

This led to a division: the Shami sub-group adopted a Sephardic-influenced rite, while others retained the ancestral liturgy. In the 18th century, Yiḥyah Salaḥ promoted a compromise, creating the Baladi-rite prayer book that followed the traditional Yemenite ritual but made some concessions to Kabbalists, such as incorporating Lekhah Dodi. The Baladi community continued to follow Maimonides almost exclusively, while the Shami community also accepted the Shulchan Aruch.

Beliefs

Dor Daim emphasize the absolute unity of God, which they believe has been compromised by popular forms of Kabbalah. They appeal to the philosophical writings of Saadia Gaon, Bahya ibn Paquda, Judah Halevi, and Maimonides. Key points include: God is incomparable to any created thing; He is neither male nor female, and human speech about Him is allegorical; His existence is qualitatively different from all other existences, and all others depend on Him while He remains distinct; His oneness is not divisible or composed of parts, nor is it a unity of species or type; no quality of creation applies to Him—not space, time, change, body, form, or image; any Biblical or Talmudic phrases implying such qualities must be understood non-literally; the splendor of His being is beyond human grasp, as stated in Psalms 145:3; all references to Him are either by negation or metaphor.

Criticisms

Some claim Dor Daim and students of Maimonides are heretics for not accepting the Zohar and Lurianic Kabbalah, but this depends on assuming Lurianic Kabbalah is a binding dogma. Ovadia Yosef stated this does not make Dor Daim heretics. Rabbis Eliyahu Dessler and Gedaliah Nadel maintained it is acceptable to believe the Zohar was not written by Shimon bar Yochai.

The Noda Bihudah argued the Zohar is unreliable due to lack of an unbroken mesorah. The Dor Dai response is that heresy is a legal question decided by halakha; one is not a heretic for disagreeing with a widely held aggadic interpretation unless halakha says so. Others criticize Dor Daim for delegitimizing those who follow Kabbalah; Yiḥyah Qafiḥ held that one must not use parchments written by or eat meat slaughtered by believers in Kabbalah, as these are dedicated to Zeir Anpin.

Did You Know?

• The movement may have existed long before its 1912 formalization; Hayyim Habshush was a member before the name Dor Deah was used.
• Yiḥyah Qafiḥ became headmaster of a new Jewish school in Sana'a established by the Ottoman Turks, introducing arithmetic and basics of Arabic and Ottoman Turkish.
• The term Darad'ah is derived from an Arabic broken plural based on the Hebrew Dor De'ah.