Thus the most central question of the renaissance is: "What does it mean that I am a Karaim; what do I have to do and what do I have to believe?"Of course, every human being encounters a similar question. As a rule, however, various answers are available in both oral and printed form in larger communities. Among the Karaims this is not the case. Very few of them can teach anything of the content of Karaim theology. Furthermore, traditional literature is composed in Arabic and Hebrew, languages which Karaims cannot read. [11]
One important factor has contributed to the preservation of the Karaim religion. In a peculiar way, the Karaims have adapted one more Protestant principle: the kenesa service is in the national language, Karaim, instead of the traditional holy tongue, Hebrew. [12] The change has taken place gradually over the last one hundred years. As a final phenomenon illustrating this development, I wish to refer to the two Tablets of the Law which in accordance with Jewish tradition embellish the altars of the kenesa synagogues: in Trakai and the re-established kenesa in Vilnius, these Tablets are written in the Karaim language.
