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March/April 2012 Vol. XI - No 4
Samaritan Passover Sacrifice on Friday, May 4, 2012This year appear to have generated a lot of new interest in attending the Samaritan Passover, If someone does not have away to Gerizim, there is a Tour Bus from Jerusalem. Bus from Jerusalem Prayer Center to Mt. GerizimDeparture: Friday May 4th @ 9 am At: Nablus Rd 35, Jerusalem Get Registered: Project Redemption (Member of the Evangelical Alliance) E-Mail: info@projectredemption.org Phone 054 700 1829 or 02-581 5584 Bus Fees & Program: 80 NIS/per Person ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RATSON B. BENYAMIM TSEDAKA - 90 YEARS TO HIS BIRTHDAY Book Review from Haseeb Shehadeh [University of Helsinki] كاتالوج جديد لواحد وستين مخطوطا سامريا في مكتبة كلاو الأمريكية عرض ومراجعة أ. د. حسيب شحادة جامعة هلسنكي
New Catalog for
One and
Sixty Samaritan Manuscripts in
the Library of the
American CLOUGH
Book: Binyamim Tsedaka, The Collection of Samaritan Manuscripts in the Klau Library of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; A.B. -Institute of Samaritan Studies. 2011 (Hebrew). ISBN 0-87820-466-0.
Article in Hebrew and Arabic with English Abstract
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kayıp Bir Halk : Samiriler - TRT Dünya Raporu - TRT TürkYouTube video on the Samaritans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcLW1wRaE_k&feature=share ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Our Heritage The Language the Jewish-Samaritan polemic stressed that Ezra the writer has changed the language and the script. The historical facts are different. The change of the script within it the Jews adopted the Aramaic script but the Samaritans adhered only the ancient Hebrew script happened in a much later period to the period of Ezra the writer [5Th century BCE]. The change completed in the first century CE when following the Jewish-Samaritan debate the Jews stopped to use the Ancient Hebrew script and moved moderately to use only the Aramaic script [That mistakenly called Assyrian script' because the Aramaic replaced then the Greek as an international language], but the Samaritans stopped completely to use the Aramaic script. The fact that most of the inscriptions found on Mount Gerizim were written in Aramaic proves that Jews and Samaritans used both scripts daily. Generally speaking the change of the script was a long process that was not depended on a decision of one personality but derived from the need of the two hostile communities - Jews via Samaritans to depart from one another. Concerning the language, it is the same Hebrew language but no doubt the pronunciation of the Hebrew as well as the Aramaic in the mouth of the Samaritans is much earlier that the pronunciation of both languages in the mouth of the Jews. Scholars such as Zeev b. Hayeem, the greatest scholar of our generations of the Hebrew and Aramaic Samaritan version claims that the reading of the Torah in the mouth of the Samaritans represents the pronunciation of the Hebrew in the last centuries BCE. Benyamim Tsedaka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Samaritan Update is open to any articles that are mainly relative to Samaritan Studies. The Editor of theSamaritanUpdate.com will decide if your article is worth posting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Jewish one created in a later period under the Roman and Byzantine occupation of the Land of Israel. In fact, historically there were never any lost tribes of Israel,... since the Assyrian occupation has a very sophisticated system of occupation that left the majority of the occupied peoples on their lands to continue paying taxes to the Assyrian Empire treasure. Only the elite minority was sent off to prevent any chance of new revolutions against the Assyrians. The same system was copied by the Babylonians. This minority of heads and organizers that were sent off the occupied country was far the homeland in Babylon. Assyria and Madai, some of them returned to their homeland after 3-7 generations, the majority refused to return back since their professional experience helped them to get high positions in the Assyrian and Babylonian administrations. When that minority developed and increased some of them continued to move east to new lands in Southeast Asia and in India where they were active till the 14-15Th centuries, when Jewish and Islamic passengers started to deliver astonished news about the existence of like Jewish and Samaritan communities. Most of those communities were converted to Islam and lost their former religious identity, only some ruins in Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Ukraine and other former Soviet Union Countries still testifying their existence in the far past. As for the Samaritan edition of the story of the lost tribes, it developed in the 16-19 centuries when the heads of the Samaritan communities in Nablus, Gaza and Cairo really wanted to believe that there were left in England, Germany, France and India, lost Israelite Samaritan communities that believed and kept the Mount Gerizim tradition like them. Those who let them believe this were mostly European scholars and Hebrew manuscripts collectors that sent them letters pretending that the letters were sent by Samaritan communities in order to get the ancient Samaritan manuscripts from the real Samaritan Communities of the three cities. In this way the naive Samaritans sent 40 Samaritan Pentateuch's to Europe with the belief that they would be of use by those imaginative communities. All this process happened between the 17Th to the 19Th centuries, long before the Samaritans started to sell their manuscripts to every visitor that came to Nablus which raised the number of ancient Samaritan manuscripts in the world's libraries to 4,000. In the hands of the Samaritans of Holon and Mount Gerizim today, were left around 1,200 manuscripts in which they stopped the sell them, aware of their great value to their owner and to the pride of the community. In conclusion there is nothing real in both legends. It was very romantic to believe it was something real in these Jewish and Samaritan legends of what is so called "The Lost Tribes". But now that the majority of the People of Israel are in the State of Israel, it is time to keep ourselves in reality and try with our own hands to make our life much better. Benyamim Tsedaka ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE SAMARITAN HOUSEHOLDS AT PRESENT The Israelite-Samaritans are divided today [2012] into four households derived from three tribes: Levi, Menasshe and Ephraim. Till 1968 there were among them those of the sons of Benyamim tribe. From the tribe of Levi remains till the present day, only one household. The Priests of the 'Aabtaa [In Arabic: Dar Elhaftawi] descendants of Itamar b. Aaron, the priest the brother of Moses. Families of this household lived in the past also in Damascus. Their duties were to be escorts of the High Priests of the household of Phinehas b. Elazar b. Aaron, that ceased in 1624 for the lack of successors. The sons of Itamar survived, and despite the fact that only one 4 year old child survived in 1787 after his father died, the household recovered and all the present households are successors of this sole child, Shalma b. Tabia. The eldest priest of the household became the high priest in 1624. Since then till the present 20 high priests were in office. The household is divided into 3 branches or families: The largest family is the family of Phinchas b. Isaac that called House of Phinehas [Dar Chader], most of them live on Mount Gerizim and the rest in Holon; The Family of Issak b. 'Amram: House of Issak [Dar Aschak], all of them live on Mount Gerizim and the family of Jacob b. Aaron, House of Jacob [Dar Yaaqub], most of them lives on Mount Gerizim and the rest in Holon, south of Tel Aviv in the State of Israel. The most prominent personalities of this household in literature and ritual: 'Abed Ela b. Shalma, the forefather of the household, lived in Damascus and Shechem in the 14Th century CE, 'Abed Ela b. Barakah and Sadaqa in the 16Th century, Tabia b. Isaac in the 18Th century, Shalma b. Tabia, 'Amram and Isaac b. Shalma, Jacob b. Aaron and Phinchas b. Isaac in the 19Th century; Abisha b. Phinchas, Isaac b. 'Amram, Levi b. Abisha, Beret b. Tabia, Phinchas b. Abraham and Elazar b. Tsedaka all in the 20Th century. From the Tribe of Menashe remained only one household: Tsedaka Hassafari [Dar Elsabachi]. This household was developed of the Sons of Menashe household, one of his branches lived in Damascus. The forefather of the household was Safar b. Jacob, lived in the 14Th century CE. Since then the household never left Shechem till the end of the 19Th century. In the beginning of the 20Th century the family of Abraham b. Marchiv Hassafari moved to Jaffa and there they adopted a new family name: Tsedaka following one of forefathers name of the family, Tsedaka b. Ab-Za'uta lived in the 18Th century. The full name of the household is now Tsedaka Hassafari [Sadaqa Elsabachi]. The household Tsedaka Hassafari divided in the present into two families: The family of Marchiv b. Jacob [Dar Farag] and family of his brother Ubab [Dar Chabib]. The two brothers lived in Shechem in the 19Th century. The household Tsedaka Hassafari has established the Samaritan settlement outside of Shechem. First in the year 1905 Abraham b. Marchiv moved from Shechem to Jaffa. His sons moved to Tel Aviv after his death in 1928 and in the year 1951 they moved to Holon there Yefet b. Abraham established the Samaritan neighborhood [With the help of the second President of the state of Israel, Isaac b. Zvi] and served as the head of the Samaritans outside Shechem till his death in 1982. Most of the household lives in Holon and the rest on Mount Gerizim. Till March 2012 there was a third branch of the household, the family of Ariah b. Shalma [Dar Elnimir]. The last one died in 25.3.2012 with no successor. The most prominent personalities of this household in literature: Abraham b. Marchiv, in the 19Th century, Ratson b. Benyamim and Yisrael b. Gamliel in the 20Th century. From the Tribe of Ephraim remains two households: Dinfi and Marchiv. The Dinfi household lived in Damascus till the beginning of the 17Th century. One small family has succeeded to escape from Damascus to Shechem in 1625 during a pogrom that destroyed the remnants of the Samaritan community there. This family was adopted by the Samaritans of Shechem and started to increase in the number to be in the present the largest household. During the 18Th century the Dinfi household divided into four branches called after their fathers: first and the oldest is the Sirrawi family [Dar Sirrawi] called after Yishmael b. Ab-Sikuwwa that lived in the 17Th century. He served as a secretary in Shechem administration [in Arabic: Kateb Sirri] which gave him the nickname Sirrawi. In Holon, half of the family changed their family name to Sassoni [a wrong translation of the name Sirrawi]. Most of the family lives in Holon and the rest on Mount Gerizim. The other branch is Altif family, called after 'Abed Hanuna b. Jacob Hadinfi whose nickname was Iltafe=Handsome. So the name of the family branch became Altif [Dar Iltafe] in the 20Th century. Most of the family lives on Mount Gerizim and the rest in Holon. Other two families of the same household died out in the second half of the 20Th century: The first and the oldest called after their father, Amshallemaa b. Ab-Sikkuwwa [Dar Imsallam], that lived in Shechem in the 17-18Th century and the other branch is called after their father Sadaqa b. Jacob that his nickname was Elshalabi=The good looking [Dar Elshalabi]. The most prominent personalities of this household in literature: Amshallema b. Ab-Sikkuwwa and Ab-Sikkuwwa b. Abraham in the 17-18Th centuries; Abraham b. Jacob that called "El'Ayyeh" = Who pleas, lived in the 18Th century; Epfrem b. Shalma, Ab-Sikkuwwa b. Saed and Ta'or b. Jacob in the 19Th century. The Second household of the tribe of Ephraim is Marchiv called after the forefather of the family that lived in the 14Th century. This household lived in Damascus, Gaza and Sarafand near Ramleh. The survivors arrived to Shechem in the 16-17Th centuries. In the 18Th century the household divided into two families, the first Marchiv [Dar Mfarreg] after their father's name Marchiv b. Abraham that lived then, and the other family called after Yehoshua [Dar Aosh'a] the brother of Marchiv b. Abraham. Most of the Marchiv family lives in Holon and the rest in Mount Gerizim. All Yehoshua family lives in Holon. The most prominent personalities of Marchiv household: Marchiv b. Jacob b. Yusef in the 17Th century, Yusef b. Yehoshua in the 18Th century and Abraham b. Yashishakar.
Till 1968
there were Samaritans from the tribe of Benyamim. They came from Gaza to
Shechem, all of them of the Family of Matar [Dar Elmatari] in the 18Th
century. The family ceased in 1968 when the last one, a female, died.
The most prominent personality of this household was Tabia b. Ab-Za'uta,
a great poet, commentator and served as a governor of Jaffa in the 18Th
century. Note: It should be left to the historians of the future to
judge who are the most prominent personalities in Samaritan literature
among the Israelite Samaritans living in the present.
Benyamim Tsedaka
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ פסח אצל השומרונים: מזבח ועד קציצותמאת: קובי קלייטמן, מערכת וואלה! יום שלישי, 10 באפריל 2012, 12:12 English title translation Passover by the Samaritans: altar until meatballsBy: Kobi Kleitman, a Walla! Tuesday, April 10, 2012, http://food.walla.co.il/?w=%2F1109%2F2523457 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ تنظيم معرض التراث والثقافة السامرية في النجاح http://www.sl-a.org/newsdet.php?id=29 Organizing an Exhibition of Heritage and Culture of Success SamaritanSociety organized a Samaritan legend and under the auspices of His Excellency President Mahmoud Abbas, Gallery of Heritage and Culture Samaritan, in the Hall of Chess, in the building of the Faculty of Fine Arts, At Najah National University, where he opened Dr. Hussein Araj, Director of the Office of the President and the representative of President Mahmoud Abbas exhibition with an opening alive, where the curators. He then went on to express the role of the Samaritan community and religious tolerance experienced by the city of Nablus Btoaúvha three.
May occured. More affectionate social ties that bind people of the city Bbedm other regardless of their religious communities and Tkacvhm and Taaddhm in crises, and added d. Hannoun is no doubt that the religious feelings of the Samaritan community strong and full of principles that bind her children in God, this community has enjoyed a good reputation among its neighbors, Muslims, Christians and deserved deservedly described a bridge of love and affection between different communities.
He added that the experience of common life with the Samaritan sect in Nablus prove that this city and its people are tolerant and Mnsjmon, and we will stay on this tolerance we live what divides them is not a fraternity. Nasser spoke Baker, director of the Bank of Palestine, on the Bank's support for social institutions and the Bank's role in promoting a culture of social responsibility to the local institutions, without distinction. Then, Mr. Isaac Samaritan, secretary of the Samaritan community about the importance of the definition of history and heritage Samaritan, then Mr. Jacob, Samaritan, president of the legend Samaritan, thanked Najah National University and patron of the exhibition for their encouragement and interest in the sect, Samaritan history and called for the inclusion of Assembly within the cooperation programs and cultural exchanges, international are organized at home and abroad. Everyone then went to the opening of the exhibition, which included a set of images that you know the history and identity of the Samaritan community and its rituals, customs and traditions. http://www.sl-a.org/newsdet.php?id=29
Samaritan Library
Almkthblh Samaritan (Good Samaritan Center), the first and only library in the neighborhood Samaritan at the top of Mount Gerizim. March 22, 2012
Notes from the Samaritan Museum A delegation from the British Consulate, French Consulate, visit Samaritan Museum on 15/4/2012 and has expressed admiration for the Museum and its contents. On March 27, 2012 the visit of Princess Sumaya University for technology, Jordan Professor Dr. Issa Eid Betarsh accompanied by an Arab delegation and foreigner to 6 p.m. Samaritan Museum, was very impressive and Samaritan Museum and its images and relics, as well as the Samaritan history and civilization.
A delegation of the Samaritan community on 23/4/2012 headed by high priestAaron, Abu al-Hasan and a group of priests of the Samaritan community in addition to a number of community leaders to visit President Mahmoud Abbas"Abu Mazen" in the district of Ramallah to his call to attend the festival which marks the Glades Samaritan on Friday 4/5/2012, and was received by the President of the Office of the President, Dr. Hussein Araj and Dr. Saeb Erekat and Tayeb Abdel Rahim, has held many conversations between the President and the Samaritan delegation, also called the museum director Hosni Samaritan priest to reconsider their decision to freeze membership in the Council Samaritan legislature, Mr. President has expressed his interest in this.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Samaritan Scholar Visits APU by University RelationsAuthor and historian Benyamin Tsedaka visited APU December 5–6, 2011, to view the university’s Dead Sea Scroll (DSS) fragments and present an insightful lecture about ancient customs in the political and social life of Samaritans in Israel, as well as the most significant differences between the Samaritan and Jewish versions of the Pentateuch. An expert on ancient Israelite-Samaritan documents, and 1 of only 750 living Samaritans in the world, Tsedaka speaks internationally about the Israelite Samaritans, descendants of the ancient kingdom of Israel, and their separation from the Israelite Jews, descendants of the Kingdom of Judah. Tsedaka expressed special interest in the fragment APU acquired in 2009 of Deuteronomy 27:4–6, which scholars believe came from Cave 4 at Qumran. The Dead Sea Scrolls library includes the earliest known texts of the Hebrew Bible, some of which date to 250 B.C., and were discovered between 1947–56. This DSS fragment contains a rare Samaritan variant that reads “Mt. Gerizim” in Deuteronomy 27:4, as does the Samaritan Pentateuch. “It was an honor to welcome Mr. Tsedaka to our campus,” said Karen Winslow, Ph.D., professor of biblical studies in the Graduate School of Theology and director of the Free Methodist Center. “Most people do not realize that Samaritans continue to live in Israel near ancient Shechem and worship on nearby Mt. Gerizim. This visit presented an extraordinary opportunity for the APU community to meet a Samaritan elder and hear about Samaritan Scriptures and other traditions. Mr. Tsedaka is a living witness to the diversity engendered by the biblical tradition.” Posted: April 12, 2012 http://www.apu.edu/articles/18688/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Israel's Other Temple Research Reveals Ancient Struggle over Holy Land Supremacy By Matthias Schulz 04/13/2012 Clad in a gray coat, Aharon ben Ab-Chisda ben Yaacob, 85, is sitting in the dim light of his house. He strikes up a throaty chant, a litany in ancient Hebrew. He has a full beard and is wearing a red kippah on his head. The man is a high priest -- and his family tree goes back 132 generations. He says: "I am a direct descendent of Aaron, the brother of the prophet Moses" -- who lived perhaps over 3,000 years ago. Ab-Chisda is the spiritual leader of the Samaritans, a sect that is so strict that its members are not even allowed to turn on the heat on the Sabbath. They never eat shrimp and only marry among themselves. Their women are said to be so impure during menstruation that they are secluded in special rooms for seven days. Cont'd here: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,827144,00.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Ayoob Kara: “Moses would be Proud”4/4/2012“Moses would be proud of his descendants who promote the culture of the Book, and reject the force of the sword,” said Deputy Minister Kara at the inauguration of the first Samarian sect museum and library on Mt. Gerizim, featuring documents and testimonies dating back to the Exodus from Egypt. Kara announced that the project would also serve the residents of Shchem and the area, and perhaps now the Book would finally overcome the sword. Hebrew and Image here. Original article: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/236572#.T5bE-7Om_78 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hungarian Article Vallásháború áldozata lett a szamaritánusok szentélyehttp://www.mult-kor.hu/20120418_vallashaboru_aldozata_lett_a_szamaritanusok_szentelye English Translation below by Google
Religious war shrine became the victim of the Samaritans2012th April 18 12:24 Archaeologists near Jerusalem, discovered the remains of a temple, which is much better known in the time, King Solomon built the temple is also ahead. The ashes later destroyed the sanctuary szamaritánusokhoz belonged to history, however distorted, as the Jews saw the rival sects. The Samaritans and Jews have common ancestry, such as the Old Testament story of how the tribes of Israel in Samaria, founded in 926 BC. Scripture as the only book of the Pentateuch Samaritans recognize at first they were outnumbered by the Jews, and there was a time when the community has reached 300 thousand people - maybe a million times. The strict religious rules, however, predicted the fall of the sect, ("No one outside the land of promise telepedhet down"), their numbers began to rapidly lose weight, at the end of World War II and only 146 people lived in the area. "Today the situation is much better" - says the 85-year-Ab in infants in Aaron Jacob, referring to the fact that religious communities are now 751 inhabitants. The slight increase in population, however, only the rigid traditions, including the loosening of marriage within the community has been achieved, for example, five in Ukraine in 2004 and received a Siberian Jew in the community. The Samaritans of the 4th BC century it became the Jews, the Bible is as idolatry and "barbarians" are displayed. The historian Flavius Josephus, Titus - by the way a Jew himself - writes that the apostates 'great haste' sanctuary was erected in 330 BC, the Temple in Jerusalem which was intended to copy. The ongoing excavations at hegységnél Garizim-2500 is a recently built, 96 meter by 98 meter temple emerged. Jihad Israeli archaeologist Mage 400 thousand animal bones found in each of the goods offered égieknek. But there was a silver ring on it tetragrammatonl Yahweh (YHWH). This means that just 50 kilometers from Jerusalem was still a big shrine where the faithful összegyűlhettek. The Hebrew Bible is a slightly different way depicts the story does not bring up the "chosen place", the important part than in Garizim name either, but instead to read that Yahweh altar in Ebal was raised, which was the goal that Garizim Mount denying legitimacy. The researchers found that regular religious war broke out between the Jews and the Samaritans, and was initially the szamaritánusoknak the flag. After 732 BC the Assyrians conquered Israel in, many refugees in Judea, Jerusalem and population increased tenfold (15 thousand). A few years later, Hezekiah ordered the Jews and the szamaritánusokat that a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Command to be justified: the city is the only place where that freedom is preserved and clean. While the Jews created an entire biblical story of the tiny southern kingdom around. The story goes that around 1000 BC, the seat of David in Jerusalem, and from there controlled the area in which his son Solomon flourished up. However, so far not been found any archaeological finds that the existence of King Solomon's temple would have been strengthened. Aim was a priest of Judea before them: to glorify their own city and make the most of the extended szektáról wrong. For example, one could read the book of Ezra, the Samaritans wanted to prevent the construction of the temple in Jerusalem destroyed, simply because they did not. This is not true: Garizim Hill had already been several years in the sanctuary, where many fossils Mage - jewelry, silver, aranyöv - also are available. 180 BC to the sanctuary "outgrown" itself an area of 200 meter by 200 meter line has grown, stairs, halls, which are "thousands" filled with pilgrims. The debate was finally decided by brute force: a Jewish prince, Johannész Hürkanosz swarmed the temple destroyed by the Samaritans, the other never rebuilt. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Romanian Article Article here: http://www.ziare.com/cultura/antichitate/tulburatoarea-decadere-si-disparitie-a-samaritenilor-fondatorii-israelului-1162029
English Translation below by Google Thrilling decay and disappearance of the Samaritans, the founders of Israel
Samaritans, who were
an important religious group in the Levant, founded Kingdom
of Israel, around 930 BC. Tumultuous
history of the Samaritans led to a dramatic decrease of the
population of several hundred thousand in antiquity to
about 750 people present. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Spanish Article
Los Buenos Samaritanos by Jack Goldstein 18/3/2012
Article here: http://www.radiojai.com.ar/OnLine/notiDetalle.asp?id_Noticia=59119 English Translation below by Google
Good Samaritans But in reality there are only six losses because even today in our midst a group of about 750 people mostly belong to the tribes of Menashe and Ephraim, direct descendants from the father of Joseph, the same as the multicolored blanket and who deciphered the dreams of Pharaoh in Genesis. Until 40 years ago there was also a family descended from the other half of the tribe of Benjamin. And of course, there are also including Cohanim from the tribe of Levi, descendants of the Cohanim schismatics when Eli the priest rode separate tent at Beth I refer him to the Samaritans who today live in two communities of equal size: The Holon that dates back some 80ańos, where everyone is accepted as Israeli citizens and Jews under the Law of Return. And there is the Kiryat Luza on the outskirts of Nablus where they lived for millennia and where they recently had to migrate physical fear of Palestinian violence. There are living under Israeli protection, administration as Israeli citizens and Palestinian religious "Jewish Samaritan" sheltered under the same Law of Return, but also enjoying Palestinian and Jordanian citizenship and have a share in the Palestinian Parliament. Confused? Exciting. Do the Samaritans are Jews? Not because they are not descended from Judah nor accept our Torah. Also, do not believe in the Tanach, much less in the Talmud. Just believe in the Torah, the Torah, a Torah almost identical to ours except for about 7,000 minor differences, most consisting of a repeated letter or two concepts. Except a few slight differences fundamental. They believe that the birthright blessing followed the line of Joseph and therefore went to Menashe and Ephraim. They believe the Mount of Blessing is Gerizim and Ebal and therefore not that is where they built their altar and where according to legend is hidden even today the Urim and Thummim, the Ark of the Law with all its paraphernalia and the twelve stones that Joshua marked his entry into the Promised Land. For them, the center of the world is there, on Gerizim, on whose slopes are building the biblical Shechem, where Abraham would they say sac charify Isaac. They believe that Jerusalem is anathema as are all the prophets of the Tanakh. They argue that our Ten Commandments are actually nine because "I Am" is not a simple command but Divine statement. For them, the real tenth commandment was removed from our version and is to build an altar on Gerizim. David and the Hasmoneans are its declared enemies.The Samaritans are the biblical concept of the stages of Fanuta or the time when God would be present to us as it was up before reaching the Promised Land, and the subsequent Rahuta season begins at the end of Deuteronomy when God gets frustrated with and we promise not to appear before us again until their time with their messiah or Taheb. The Samaritans call themselves Israelites, speak ancient Hebrew and written in such characters and not ours of Babylonian origin. We call Shomronim referring to Shomron (Samaria), but they say the term is derived from "Shomrei Haemet" Keepers of the Truth. For them, we are the schismatics, who adulterate the Torah, who follow some prophets who claimed to speak for God in times when God said specifically that would not talk to us, who built an entire temple and not a simple altar, as well to build it in the wrong place. According to them, that's why we fled exiled from the Promised Land, we are who we take off the range to the Levites and Cohanim, and ultimately are the ones we make up a string of Halachot heretical.The Samaritans are only the festivities of the Torah (only Kippur fast on and do itall outside his age do not celebrate Tub'Shvat, Purim or Hanukkah or). As they do not live in the Diaspora, festivals are one day, strictly comply with the Kashrutand do as we just do not eat our shechita because we do not of rendamos front leg of a slaughtered animal to the Kohen Gadol. They do have a Kohen Gadol who inherits his title as is prescribed by the Torah and proudly displayed a line of more than 160 generations to take them to Aaron. Inherit patrilineally religion as we did once. Their year begins on 1 Nissan as it should be and 1 Tishrei Yom Teruah only commemorated, as it gives us the Torah.Even today, on Passover sacrifice the Passover lamb, family gather and eat fast fast because we had to leave Egypt. Haggadah or do not have long dinners. The years have not since the creation of Adam, but from the entrance of the tribes to the Promised Land, argue event took place about 3,650 years and not the 3,350 reported by our version of events. His Sabbaths are gloomier, the traditional Karaite. No Bar-Mitzvot, no tefillin, tzitzit their tallitot and are quite different, the mezuzot scrolls but are not written or carved eyes on the gates of the houses and allude to any mitzvah of the Torah. The Star of David David associated with the bad, for them there is nothing more representative than the Menorah and the rounded arms of the Knesset. Continue to make three annual pilgrimages to Gerizim and offer tithes to their Cohanim. The herbs used in Sukkot is prescribed in the Torah and not the ones we use today, their Sukkot make the most colorful and spectacular but in the room of their homes hidden result of years of persecution by the Byzantines and Muslims (and evidence that have also been able to interpret and adapt the law to the circumstances). Today, the great debate in the community is to determine if it is allowed or not to maintain an air conditioner connected during Shabbat.Like us, the sacrifices replaced by prayers (but both the Torah and not the three we have) and eventually learned to light candles on Shabbat and believe in the Resurrection. Being so few today, recently agreed to marry but not Goyot goyim. His absolute fidelity to the Promised Land did not go out and exiles in the past 2,500 years that has cost them easily have been decimated or forced to convert. They have an archive of over 1,000 songs (in my rather monotonous and repetitive) but it certainly show a very old musical origin. They have no legal code just like the Talmud and developed an analytical case studies and emerging legislation that made them more loyal to their Torah but anachronistic and stagnant. His story is not nearly as well documented as ours but they can go to their own and others evidence covering the past 2,700 years whether in texts or archaeological remains. At Samaritans we identify in our Tanach as those remnants of the northern kingdom who were assimilated during the time of the Assyrian diaspora, who lived and worshiped in areas where there were many altars to our God, who gave us "zapearon" to the Persians when we started to build a defensive wall around Jerusalem. And heretics were so bad for us that even Jesus himself and considered them and were surprised to find just one that was "good." Were once a great people.Their records tell of being more than a million Byzantium before the extermination began. One hundred years ago were only 150 people today argue that much of the Palestinian population is descended from both Jews and Samaritans who were forced to convert during centuries of Islamic domination. The few who were very attached to their tradition. Ironically, it was Zionism which found their salvation and the revitalization of its people. Its population has increased fivefold but are still very few and therefore both Jews and Palestinians are allowed to protect them and seek their friendship. For those who lived in Holon, the Six Day War was almost prophetic to the extent that allowed them to return to his paschal sacrifice to Mount Gerizim. They are in their own way "Zionists" decided but handle a diplomatic line between Israeli-Jews and Palestinian Muslims. His inbreeding has caused them a great number of people with congenital but his new Halacha allowing the conversion of women have been oxygenated blood and multiplied their numbers. Its history is full of lessons and questions. We can think about the right balance between law and practical patriotism in adversity, about the strange benefits it can bring the Diaspora and that may be important Talmudic mentality even for those who do not want to accept Divine authorship.The existence of the Samaritans today leads us to reflect on our history as people of Israel descended from the tribe of Judah only, or as the people of Israel being one of 12 tribes, accepting, discussing and analyzing the course and taking other tribes who feel faithful to the same God and His law in the process, invite us to reassess our folklore and legends. Read the Torah and see the history (our history) from your eyes are exercises that I recommend immensely. Their traditions, music, language and writing are an excellent window into our past. Maybe this one is more faithful to the world of the people of Israel of 2,500 or3,000 years ago than it is now ours. The way we as Jews or Israelis treat this minority should make us reflect on how other people were treated at the time and vice-versa. They are descendants of Ephraim and Menashe is patrilineal and, jealous of their status as the Chosen People and constitute another fascinating appendix of our history. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Publication Update
Die Samaritaner und die Bibel / The Samaritans and the Bible(to be published August 2012)Ed. by Frey, Jorg/ Schattner-Rieser, Ursula / Schmid, Konrad ISBN: 978-3-11-029436-1 ebook, also available as hardcover http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/184842?rskey=t4pcAW&result=3&q=samaritans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Links
Linguist's Software Fonts for the Whole WorldLaserPaleo-Hebrew SamaritanLSU in Unicode T he SamaritanLSU font contains the character shapes of the Samaritan inscription. For Windows and Mac users $49.95 Orderhttp://www.linguistsoftware.com/lphu.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Koester, Helmut (1926 -), photographer Associated Name: Research Team for New Testament and Archaeology (1970 -), Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States Repository: Harvard Divinity School 10E8 Record Identifier: olvwork295091 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Good SamaritansIsrael’s smallest religious minority offers Jews a glimpse of what might have been. What would the Jews look like had they not been exiled to the four corners of the earth, had they gone untainted — but also unenriched — by the cultures in which they tarried? Imagine Jews who retained their fierce attachment to the Torah and the faith of their fathers, but without the rabbinic response to displacement. No Talmud, no golden flourishing diasporas in Spain or Germany or America, no great movement out of the ghetto and into the Haskala, none of the upheavals of modernity, no Reform movement, no Holocaust, no Zionism, no state of their own, no Nobel laureates to kvell over, only the steady drip of obscurity, anachronism and numerical decline. What would those Jews be like today? Cont. reading at http://www.thejewishweek.com/special_sections/text_context/good_samaritans
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Samaritan community in the West Bank ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The unwanted Samaritan Pentateuch notes in Bibles distributed in Jerusalem in the 1820s.Recently I've been posting some interesting material from the journals kept by Joseph Wolff, a Jewish-born missionary active all over Asia in the 1820 - 40s, distributing tracts and Bibles (including Hebrew, Arabic and Persian translations of the New Testament) and engaging infidels in conversation and disputation. http://onthemainline.blogspot.com/2012/01/unwanted-samaritan-pentateuch-notes-in.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Minority under Occupation: the Sociopolitics of the Samaritans in the Palestinian Occupied Territoriesby *Hussein Ahmad Yousef; **Iyad Barghouti Publication Type: Journal Article Arabic Title: قلية تحت الاحتلال: دراسة للمواقف الاجتماعية والسياسية للطائفة السامرية في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة Author(s) (Arabic): حسين أحمد يوسف إياد البرغوثي Abstract: The Samaritan community is one of the smallest minorities in the world. Most of them live in the City of Nablus in Palestine. As a small minority with a main interest to survive, and to reserve its identity and heritage, the Samaritans do their best to keep their neutrality and good relations with all powers and factions in the region. Full Text ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Call for Papers:
Samaritan The Eighth Congress, ErfurtJuly 15, 2012 – July 20, 2012 The Eighth Congress of the Société d'Études Samaritaines will take place in Erfurt, Germany, July 15.-20., 2012. ~~~~ "The Other
Temples" The
role of the temple cult is extremely important for Judaism despite
Deuteronomic centralisation never being fully realised. As such, other Jewish
temples may offer a fruitful area for discussing the development of Judaism in
the Ancient Near East. We are therefore calling for papers dealing with temple
ideology and its material culture in the context of temples other than the one
in Jerusalem, whether those be real ones such as Elephantine, Leontopolis or
Gerizim, or conceptual ones like the Qumran Yahad or the new Jerusalem in
Revelation. The committee would hope to receive submissions on topics as
diverse as diaspora Judaism, early Christianity, Qumran, early Samaritan
studies, and any other historiographic and/or archaeological fields of
research referencing these paradigms. http://orion.mscc.huji.ac.il/resources/boardCalls.shtml http://hekhal.wordpress.com/conference/ ~~~~ Société d'Études Samaritaines The 8th Congress of the Société d’Etudes Samaritaines will take place in Erfurt (Germany), 15th-20th July 2012, jointly organized by the SÉS and the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Faculty of Theology. The Congress of the SÉS meets every four years and is the most important meeting of experts working in the field of Samaritan studies worldwide. http://schorch.at/html/samaritanologenkongress.html
Book mark the Samaritan Studies (EABS) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Biblios The Samaritans: Ancient Israelite Heirs or Jewish Sectarians by Saul Lustig, 1992, 222 pagesThe Samaritans: ancient Israelite heirs or Jewish sectarians - Saul ...[not been able to locate this book other than this link]
by Sharon Sullivan Dufour 2009
D. Shapira & D. Vasyutinsky, "New Samaritan Findings in the Ukrainian National Library", Hadshot ha-Shomronim 11-15 (2005), pp. 914-915, (Hebrew).
The Samaritan kaleidoscope: A look back at centuries of tensions with Judaism by Pickett, Bobby, M.A., Regent University, 2010, 89 pages; AAT 1485338 Abstract (Summary)This work explores the various schools of thought or views on the development of the Samaritans as a distinct people and religion that broke from mainstream Judaism over the centuries after a series of events. These views are: the Samaritan belief that they are direct descendants of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh; the belief that Samaritan religion developed as a splinter group of Judaism during the Persian period; the Jewish belief that Samaritism developed after the Assyrian subjugation of the northern Kingdom of Israel and the subsequent inter-marriage of the Israelite people and Assyrian colonists; the belief that the Samaritan break with Judaism occurred during the Greek and Hasmonean domination of Palestine. This paper will examine each of the traditional views of the origin of Samaritism, analyzing the schools of thought and the combined collateral effect of various events that led to a deepening of divisions between the Samaritan and the Judaic communities. In particular, the thesis of this paper will show how the Samaritans developed as a distinct people and religion from Judaism due to the north-south drift after the rupture of the united Kingdom after Solomon's reign, the disagreement over Mt. Zion and Mt. Gerizim, competing views of the priesthood, and the subjugation of the Samaritans during the Greek and Hasmonean periods.
Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament: An International Journal of Nordic Theology The Samaritan Version of the Tenth Commandment by Gershon Hepner
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09018320600757101#preview JEWS, HERETICS OR USEFUL FARM WORKERS? SAMARITANS IN LATE ANTIQUE IMPERIAL LEGISLATION
Article first published online: 27 JUL 2011 DOI: 10.1111/j.2041- 5370.2007.tb02376.x 2007 Institute of Classical Studies. School of Advanced Studies, University of London
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From the Editor We have added more New Articles in our Samaritan Archives Section. Check them all out!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Samaritan Update, is a Bi-Monthly Internet Newsletter Editor: Larry Rynearson. Contact: The EditorCopyright © 2012 All Rights Reserved |
Participated in the opening ceremony priest of the
Samaritans, Aaron Abu-Hassan, and Dr. Mohammad Hannoun, Vice
President for Community Affairs, and Mr. Nasser Al-Baker,
director of the Bank of Palestine in Nablus and the
exclusive sponsor of the exhibition.
