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July 29th, 2004 |
Vol. III - No.25 |
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In This Issue
The Samaritan Update, is a Bi-Weekly Internet Newsletter, a Division of The-Samaritans.com. Subscription is free via E-mail only. ----- Editor: Shomron Co-Editor: Osher Sassoni Staff Writer: Staff Photographer: Eyal Cohen Staff Translator: Guy Tsabary Special Contributors: A. B. - Samaritan News ---- Contact information: and to our The-Samaritans.com Website is still being reorganized Subscribe To the Bi-Weekly Newsletter -The Samaritan Update. Sign Up ! Donate to The-Samaritans.com
Sunset Times for Central Israel calculated by Abraham Cohen from HolonSabbaths begins Friday June 30th, 6:40 pm to Saturday 31st, 6:39 p.m. Weekly Parshiyot- Shemor-Exodus 20:8-12 with Genesis 37-38
August 6th 6:34pm- 7th 6:33pm Weekly Parshiyot- Shemor-Exodus 20:8-12 with Genesis 39:41-49
Samaritan Calendar of Festivals Samaritan Calendar of Festivals
Festival of the Seventh Month- Oct. 14th, 2004 Day of Atonement Oct 23rd, 2004 Succoth- Oct. 28th Rejoicing of the Torah- Nov. 4, 2004 Samaritan Studies and Related Conferences: In Planning Stage SES: In University of Papa/ Hungary in 2008. organised by Dr. Joseph Zsengelle' Markah Memar III.1 It is our duty to be a tree good to behold, crowned with goodly fruits, and to hasten to acquire wisdom and fill our souls with what the True One taught us. It does not behove us to leave ourselves like a waste land which has nothing in it, or like a tree without fruits, for an end has to be made of it. We were created rather to acquire the wisdom of our ancestors, as is fitting.
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A Special Session in the House of Presidents of Israel held on the Judea and Samaria Studies A.B. - The Samaritan News The President of Israel Mr. Moshe Katzav has hosted the current session of
the
The High Priest Elazar has opened the session alongside with the host
President Katzav. High Priest Elazar has blessed the over 200 participants -
Historians and Excavators from all over the country - with the great Blessings
of the High Priests {Numbers, 6:22-26] before Dr. Magen
(pictured right) gave the main lecture.
Magen has announced in the beginning of his words that the excavations on Mount Gerizim will be resumed soon after a long break, thanks to the much stimulation
to do that after the great result of the last excavations on Gerizim Mountain. Magen has suggested
Dr. Magen has stated the immediate conclusion of the 22 last years of
excavations on Mount Gerizim that the Israelite Samaritans have built two
temples on the Mountain, one by the Governor of Samaria, Sanballat the
Horonite [Now the town of Chuwwara in the west-south of Mount Gerizim slopes] in
the Fifth century contemporary with the the Governor of Judea. Nechemia
activities in Jerusalem, and the second in the second century B.C.E at the time
of Antiochus the IV Epiphanies. The City has been destroyed and burnt to to its
foundation by the Hasmonean King John Horcanus in 112-113 B.C.E.. A.B. - The Samaritan news is remarking that in a special convention held in 1991 in Jerusalem, after 8 years of digging, then Mr. Magen the excavator has stated that he never found in the site anything previous to the second century B.C.E., but now in 2004 he is stating that he got far deep to the 6th century B.C.E. findings although he dug less than 10% of the excavation area of 100 acres. The vast quantity of the great findings is very stimulating the digger to go on with the excavation with an expectations that all present conclusions will be wiped out to be replaced by different findings deeper to the very ancient periods of the Gerizim Mountain that the Hebrew Forefathers used it a their sacred place for worshiping the God of Israel["Shema"]. In his concluding words of session the President of Israel has expressed his expectation and encouragement to go on with the excavation to find out what might be discovered in the rest 90% of the area of excavations on the peak of Mount Gerizim. Next to Magen lecture the participants have heard with full interest the short but important lectures of Dr. Chagai Misgav on the different ancient scripts of the Hebrew and the lecture of Mr. Yuval Peleg on New discoveries from Kumran near the Dead Sea. At the end of the session that will be remembered for long time the Authority of Antiquities and Judea and Samaria Publications [JSP] have given a special present to - The first four volumes that came out already crowned with the last one: "Mount Gerizim Excavations, Vol. 1".
Constantia (Arles, Arelate)
Baba Rabba was a Samaritan revolutionary that rebelled against Roman rule in the 4th century C.E. He agreed to a peace with the Romans and was held captive till his death in a city called Constantina. Constantinople has been taken to be the city the Samaritan writings call Constantina. But in relationship to the name appears a city in the south of France called Constantia. From 328 A.D. Arles or Arelate was renamed to Constantia in honor of Constintine II's death. Emperor Constantine III (407 - 411) made Arles his capital city in 408. It was an important Roman city and military headquarters with seaport of Roman Emperors in the 4th century. It was also a favorite city of Emperor Constantine the Great. This could be the location of where Rabba is buried but we may never know!
Constantine I, and later his sons, often stayed at Arles. The climate, nearby Mediterranean Sea and Alps, and caused one to linger in the area. In 330 CE the city was renamed Constantina, but the name didn’t stick. Later, in 353, the city was again named Constantina, but again, reverted to its old name of Arelate after he had been gone for a time. 330
Renamed Constantina by Constantine the Great. http://www.ancientroute.com/cities/arles.htm http://www.athenapub.com/rhone1.htm http://www.ih.csic.es/departamentos/medieval/fmh/albeldensia.htm Book Review This ULTRA RARE and RICHLY PHOTOGRAPHED Jewish TRADITION Book " DIE PASSAHFEIER DER SAMARITANER" ( The PASSOVER-PESSACH CEREMONY-CELEBRATION of the SAMARITANS ) with its SUBTITLE " Und IHRE BEDEUTUNG Fur Das VERSTANDNIS Der ALTTESTAMENTLICHEN PASSAHUBERLIEFERUNG" was published in 1932 - FIRST and ONLY EDITION by Verlag Alfred Topelmann in Giessen. Written in German by Dr. Joachim Jeremias, Professor in Griefswald. Consist of about 50 PHOTOGRAPHED chromo PLATES in addition to 60 text pp and one MAP. The book is a CLOSE and VERY THOROUGH and VIVID documentation, Made by EYE WITNESS ( Dr, Jeremias ) of the PASOVER-PESSACH Ceremony of the SAMARITANS in Nablus 1932 or earlier than that. ******* About the SAMARITAN PESSACH CEREMONY :
1. Passover Night - While the Jews continue to observe Passover annually, they have not practiced this observance completely since the destruction of the Temple. The Samaritans had separated from Jewish practice long before, and their sacrifice observations were unconnected, and thus unaffected, by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Their practice of the Passover continues much as it was millennia ago. 2 The High Priest - The Samaritans believe that their High Priest is a direct descendant of Aaron, however, the last in the line died in 1624. Since then the religious head of the Samaritans has been known as "The Priest" (HaKohen). Recent estimates number the Samaritan population today at 560, up from 139 in 1909. About half live on Mt. Gerizim and the other half in Holon. 3. The Lamb - The Samaritans follow the five books of Moses only, and their version is slightly modified from the Jewish Masoretic Text (e.g., substituting Mt. Gerizim for Mt. Ebal). According to Moses, the Passover lamb was to be brought home on the 10th of Nisan and slain on the 14th. Children would have been witness to the observance. 4. The Sacrifice - The service starts near about sunset. The Samaritan men are dressed in white garments, the leaders wear red hats, and the priests are dressed in a distinctive turquoise garb. The Samaritans chant and pray until the the signal is given, and the head of each household reaches for his knife to slice the throat of his family’s lamb. 5. Roasting the Lamb - As soon as the lamb is slain, the Samaritans celebrate. About thirty-five sheep are killed in the modern observance, about one for each larger family unit. Then the sheep are skinned and put on a skewer and carried over to one of the 2-3 meter deep roasting pits to be cooked for most of the night.
The Reader's Circle
Dissertationes de Origine ac progressu idolatriae et superstitionum de
vera ac falsa Prophetia uti et de Divinationibus, idolatricis
Juadeorum
RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN ISRAEL: THEIR HISTORY, METHODS, AND PERILS
Jewish Antiquities, or A Course of Lectures on the Three First Books
of Godwin's Moses and Aaron. Vol I Only - Concerning Persons |
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"The President's Circle of Archaeology" that dedicated this time to "Judea
and Samaria Studies" mainly to celebrate the coming out of monumental volume
"Mount Gerizim Excavations 1" by Yitzhaq Magen, Chagai Misgav
and Levana Tzfania.
The Guest of honor of this session was the High Priest of the Israelite
Samaritans Elazar B. Tsedaka. Other special guests were the Coordinator of the
Activities of the Government of Israel in Judea and Samaria and Gaza Strip
General Yosef Mishlav, Brigadir-General Ilan Paz who is in charge to Judea and
Samaria and Mr. Shukka Dorfman the director General of the Antiquities
Authority. All of them have stated words of blessings to the successful work of
the excavator Dr. Magen in digging the vast city of Ancient Luza since 1983.
(PHOTO ABOVE: President Katzav with the Guest of Honor - The High Priest of the Samaritan
Israelite People, Elazar Ben Tsedaka )
that the site so far dates back to the 6th century B.C.E.
after conclusive study of the 500 inscriptions, 17,000 coins made from gold.
silver and
bronze and hundreds of different findings, all of them have been found in the
10% of the area of the excavation. All the findings of Mount Gerizim will be
presented to the public to see in a special museum that now built near Ma'aleh
Edomim on the left side of the road of Jerico-Jerusalem close to the "Good
Samaritan Inn". 
(Photo: The honored stage from right to left: Brigadir General Ilan Paz, General Yosef
Mishlev, President Moshe Katzav, HP Elazar and Mr. Shukka Dorfman.)
In
the frameworks of the special project "Israel Has Many Faces" have
gathered seven groups each from the seven regions of education in
Israel in the House of Presidents of Israel on June 24, 2004, to
be honored by the wife of the President Mrs. Gilla Katzav
for their initiatives in doing projects of education in the
kindergartens of Israel. The most prominent body among the seven
was "Tamar Garden - Holon" in Ne'ot Yehudit neighborhood near the
Samaritan Neighborhood in Holon, where many Jewish and Samaritan
kids spending their time the first half of each day. The
Initiative was giving honor to the Samaritan issue and the
Samaritan Communities of Holon and Mount Gerizim by spreading the
learning of the Samaritans to all kindergartens in Israel to be
learned and practice yearly by the kids in Israel.
(Photo: Mrs. Miri Feldman with the Wife of the President of
Israel, Mrs. Gilla Katzav)