May/June 2009

Vol.  VIII - No.5

In This Issue

·      Married

·      Slides

·      Script

·      Karkom

·         Holyland

·      Web Links

·         Biblio

 

The Samaritan Update, is a Bi-Monthly Internet Newsletter

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Editor: Shomron

Co-Editor: Osher    

                  Sassoni

Staff Writer:

Staff Photographer:    

              

Staff Translator:

           

Special Contributors:

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Contact information:

The Editor 

 

Your link to the Update Index

and to our

Web Site: The-Samaritans.com

 

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     The Samaritans call themselves

    Bene-Yisrael (“Children of Israel”), or Shamerim (“Observant Ones”)

     

     

    Samaritan

    Studies and Related Conferences:

    2009 SBL Annual Meeting; New Orleans, LA

    Meeting Begins: 11/21/2009
    Meeting Ends: 11/24/2009

     

     

    .

     

     

    Keep Up with the Samaritan Basketball team on

    FANS of Samritan basketball team

    Community Youth Club Samaritan on Facebook.com

    SAMARITAN MYTH

    سطورة السامرية

    האגדה השומרונית الا

    A group of young Samaritans people who is interested in their culture, heritage and the future of their small community, we establish an association which is called Samaritan myth. This association is aimed on the definition of Samaritan's culture and heritage the internal and external one.

    Can be found on

    Facebook.com

     

    and see

    Smaritan

    Blogspot

     

    Smaritan.blogspot

     

    Important Links

     

    Samaritan Museum on Mount Gerizim.

     

     

    New Samaritans-

    A DOCUMENTARY on Samaritan brides from the Ukraine

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Have you purchased your book lately?

     

    Notices Of The Modern Samaritans: Illustrated By Incidents In The Life Of Jacob Esh Shelaby (1855) by Jacob Esh Shelaby and Edward Thomas Rogers (Paperback - Mar 20, 2009) 

     

     Feasts & Fasts, A Festschrift in Honor of Alan David Crown

     

    Available from www.mandelbaum.

    usyd.edu.au

     

     

     

    New Samaritans-

    A DOCUMENTARY on Samaritan brides from the Ukraine

     

     

    Finnish Arabic
    Dictionary
     by H. Shehadeh

    here for article in Arabic

     

    Forth Coming Books

    The English Translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch

      The first-ever English translation of the Samaritan Pentateuch, prepared by Benyamin Tsedaka WILL be published by Logos.  The book shall be published near the end of this year. We shall keep you informed when we learn more.

     

    Book Has New Publication Date

    SAMARITANS' PAST AND PRESENT: Current Studies (Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies) (Hardcover) by Menachem Mor (Editor) will now be on sale November 30, 2009 from  the Publisher, Walter de Gruyter.

     

    Jews and Samaritans: The Origins and History of Their Early Relations, by Gary Knoppers, (Oxford University Press, 2010)

    192 pages; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-532954-4ISBN10: 0-19-532954-6

    Hardcover, Expected: 4/15/2010

    Gary Knoppers Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Religious Studies, and Jewish Studies, Pennsylvania State University

     

     

     

    		•

    Ravit Sasony Recently Married Eyal Cohen

     

    Ravit Sasony recently married Eyal Cohen on June, 9th, 2009. Ravit is the daughter of Shoham Sassoni, sister of Osher Sassoni. Eyal is the son of Elazar Cohen. Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Cohen, a Young Samaritan Couple. May you be Blessed

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    Rare Early Glass Slides of the Samaritan Pentateuch: circa 1900

    http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/archives/photogallery12/page1.htm

    http://bardomusic.com/images-mideast1.htm

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    Title: Samaritan Script (200 C.E. – 700 C.E.)

    Author: Ashur Cherry, York University

    Search either Ashur Cherry or type Samaritan in the search engine for Samaritan comparables

    http://amicus.collectionscanada.gc.ca/electroniccollection-bin/Main/AdvSearch?l=0&id=671973.1284040&v=1&coll=11

     

    Script
    Choose the script families that you would like your translation typeset in. Depending on which family of scripts you choose, we will employ a dialect that is suitable unless you request otherwise. Click on the [more info] links to toggle examples.
    [more info]
    With over 3,000 years of history, Aramaic has hundreds of dialects which were written in dozens of scripts. Below we have a large selection grouped by family. Click the [more info] link next to each of the family headers for examples, its history, dialects and historical context.
    Beware of other companies that do not specify which dialect they are translating into. Many Aramaic dialects are not mutually intelligible. For example, Modern Syriac is not the same language as the Aramaic of Jesus of Nazereth, nor is the Aramaic found within the books of Daniel and Ezra.
    Old Aramaic - The oldest Aramaic script. [more info] Probably one of the oldest scripts that any language classified as Aramaic would have been written in, Old Aramaic script (also known as "Paleo-Hebrew" script) was heavily influenced by Proto-Canaanite. This is the script (with some variants) that would have been employed around the times the Bible describes Moses and Abraham. Most scholars date the formation of this script to the 14th century BCE.
    Samaritan - The liturgial script of the Samaritans. [more info]
    http://aramaicdesigns.rogueleaf.com/quote/

     

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    Mount Gerizim as Har Karkom and Mount Sinai -

    LexiLine Journal 259

    We have followed up Professor Anati's ideas on Har Karkom as being
    Mount Sinai and it has led to some additional discoveries:
    Peter Tompkins in Secrets of the Great Pyramid, Galahad Books, N.Y.,
    1971, writes: "According to Hebrew historians the original Jewish
    center of worship was not Jerusalem, but Mount Gerizim, a strictly
    geodetic point 4° [4 degrees] east of the main axis of Egypt. It was
    only moved to Jerusalem after 980 B.C."

    Mount Gerizim = Har Karkom in the Sinai part of ISRAEL
    Our discovery is that this clearly means that
    Mount Gerizim was Har Karkom (Geri=Kar, Zim=Kom).
    As found at Ancient Sources (Greek to English translation):
    Eusebius, Onomasticon 64:16-17 (ca. 295 A.D.); Jerome 65:16-17 (ca.
    390 A.D.)
    "Gerizim (Deut 11:29), is the mountain on which stood those who
    recited the blessings [Jerome mistakenly writes: the curses], near
    Mount Gebal of which we spoke above."

    Har Karkom in ISRAEL = Mount Sinai
    We refer here particularly now to a great pioneer book by
    Professor Emmanuel Anati, The Riddle of Mount Sinai:
    Archaeological Discoveries at Har Karkom    , Edizioni del Centro, Studi Camuni
    (a series of monographs on art, archaeology and history).

    The book can be obtained from: Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici
    25044 Capo di Ponte (BS) Italy
    Tel. (0039) 364 42091 - Fax (0039) 364 42572
    E-mail: ccspreist@tin.it URL: http://www.rockart-ccsp.com

    Anati - in our opinion correctly, it is HIS discovery - places the Biblical Mount Sinai at Har Karkom in the NORTH of the Sinai Peninsula and not SOUTH
    (as the mainstream currently and erroneously believes).

    Har Karkom is full of megaliths and rock drawings. Har Karkom is just south of the major ancient trails across Sinai, whereas the South of Mount Sinai would have been next to impossible in ancient times for a large number of people to reach on foot, as Exodus claims.

    http://lexiline.blogspot.com/ 

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    Ancient Manuscript Database

    http://www.libertyparkusafd.org/lp/Burgon/curriculum%5C250%20Ancient%20Manuscript%20Links%20--%20Part%202.htm 

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    TWENTY-ONE YEARS' WORK IN THE HOLY LAND: A RECORD AND A SUMMARY) JUNE 22, 1865— JUNE 22, 1886.
    Published for the Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund.
    Eoniron
    ALEXANDER P. WATT, 2, Paternoster Square. 1889.
    LONDON : HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY, ST. iMARTIN's LANE. THE FIRST EXPEDITION. 45

    Porter's " Five Years in Damascus " was re-discovered. Owing to the badness of the weather it was not advisable to persevere with the exploration at that time ; but it has been since resumed by Mr. Rogers, Her Majesty's Consul at Damascus, to whom a sum oi j(^^o has been voted by the Committee for that special object.

    Besides determining the general form of the authentic synagogues, the excavations made at Kedes confirm the conjecture that the supposed synagogue there was a Greek temple, of about the same age as those at Baalbek. At Jerusalem, the gate Gennath, so-called, was found to be of comparatively modern construction ; and the continuation of the passage from the Bab el-Burak of the Haram, was discovered ; the vault is of massive, well-built masonry, and there seems no reason to doubt that it is one of the original entrances to the Herodian Temple.
    On Mount Gerizim numerous excavations were made, under the direction of Lieutenant Anderson. Within the ruin known as the " Castle," the foundations of an octagonal church were laid bare, probably the one known to have been built there by Justinian. On the eastern side of the church is an apse, on the northern side the main entrance, and on each of the others doors leading to small side chapels. In the interior are the piers of a smaller octagon, apparently intended to carry a dome. The church and castle were found to be built on a rough platform of large stones laid together without mortar, and of this — ■

    which may possibly be that on which the Samaritan Temple stood — the so-called " twelve stones " form a portion. No trace of large foundations could be found on the southern portion of the small plateau on which the castle stands. Close to the Holy Rock of the Samaritans a number of human remains were dug up, but no clue could be obtained to their age or nationality.
    http://www.archive.org/stream/twentyoneyearswo00paleuoft/twentyoneyearswo00paleuoft_djvu.txt 

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    Web Links of Articles

     

    June 3rd, 2009

    Visiting the Samaritans on their holy West Bank mountain

    Posted by: Tom Heneghan

    Samaritan High Priest Abdel Moin Sadaqa was relaxing on his porch watching Al-Jazeera on a wide-screen TV when we dropped by his home to talk about his ancient religion. “I like to keep up with the news,” the 83-year-old head of one of the world’s oldest and smallest religions explained as he turned down the volume. Told we wanted to make him part of the news, more precisely part of a feature on Samaritanism, he sat up, carefully put on his red priestly turban and proceeded to chat away in the fluent English he learned as a boy under the British mandate for Palestine. Our interview with him and other Samaritans were the basis for my feature “Samaritans use modern means to keep ancient faith.”

    http://blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/tag/jewish/

     

    MODERN WOES IN ANCIENT COMMUNITY:

    Samaritans run out of brides Samaritans run out of brides

    Israeli radio towers seen as latest threat in West Bank village
    Jun 30, 2009

    Oakland Ross MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
    KIRYAT LUZA, West Bank- It is no easy matter to be a Samaritan, much less a good one, in these stressful times.

    The list of their grievances is considerable: apparent health problems, an export embargo on their famous tahini, and, most worrisome, a shortage of brides.

    Samaritans must endure the mysterious scourge of the seven nearby communications towers – most of them Israeli-built and controlled – whose electromagnetic radiation is deemed to be a health hazard.

    Read the full article http://www.thestar.com/world/columnist/article/658597

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    PDF format

    http://www.unc.edu/~werlin/Samaritan_Passover_Sacrifice.pdf

     

    A member of the Samaritan sect prepares a fire during the traditional Passover sacrifice ceremony on Mount Gerizim near the West Bank city of Nablus 09 Apr 2009 Source: Reuters http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/pictures/JER15.htm

     

    Samaritans celebrate Passover near Nablus

    Nablus – Ma’an – Members of the tiny Samaritan sect gathered on Thursday on the hilltop of Gerzeim Mountain, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, to celebrate the Passover holiday.
    The entire Samaritan community totals just 723, and is considered the smallest sect in the world. They live only near Nablus and in Holon inside Israel. The Passover holiday is the most sacred for this sect and it symbolizes freedom from slavery under Egypt's Pharaoh. Both men and women traditionally dress in white while celebrating Passover.

    Continued: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=37040

    The Samaritans' Passover sacrifice Amnon K'fir

    A day before the Jewish Seder is held on the eve of the Passover holiday, the Samaritan community gathers on the holy Mount Gerizim in the West Bank to hold the their most important religious ceremony: the Passover sacrifice. Photographer Amnon Kfir documented the ceremony during which every family must sacrifice and eat a lamb

    Continued: http://blog.writch.com/2009/04/the-samaritans-passover-sacrifice.html
     

    Samaritans celebrate Passover near Nablus Ma’an

      Nablus – Ma’an – Members of the tiny Samaritan sect gathered on Thursday on the hilltop of Gerzeim Mountain, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, to celebrate the Passover holiday.   http://www.zajel.org/article_view.asp?newsID=10996&cat=1

    Samaritan Passover Shabbat! Written by the middle

    Israel gears up for influx of Christian pilgrims to West Bank

    http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1242212388469&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

     

    Menachem's Blog The Samaritans and the Pascal Lamb

    Last year (5767/07), nearly a month after (our) Pesach, I visited Har Grizim to witness the Samaritans offering the Passover, Pascal Lamb, sacrifice. Mount Grizim is also known as Har Bracha, the mountain of the blessing due to the fact that when the Children of Israel entered the Promised Land, the first thing they did was to carry out the commandment of "the Blessings and Curses".

    http://menachem.info/Blogs/018.htm

     

    Great photos of the pilgrimage

    http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/108047,21,0,pokaz.html

     

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    Biblio:

    Kartveit, Magnar. “Who are the ‘fools’ in 4QNarrative and Poetic Compositiona-c?” In Northern Lights on the Dead Sea Scrolls: Proceeding of the Nordic Qumran Network 2003–2006, Anders Klostergaard Petersen, et al. Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah, 80, 119–133. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009.

     

    Rainer Voigt, ed. “Und das Leben ist siegreich!/”And Life is Victorious”: Mandä­ische und samaritanische Literatur/Mandae­an and Samaritan Literatures. Im Gedenken an Rudolf Macuch/In Memory of Rudolf Macuch (191-1993). Mandäistische For­schun­gen, 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008.

     

    Old Testament Textual Criticism

    Details the various manuscripts used in textual criticism such as the Masoretic texts, Septuagints, Samaritan Pentateuch, Targums, Dead Sea Scrolls and others. The book explains the various problems with textual transmission but does not give many examples with the exception of the chapter on the book Ruth. A full chapter views the differing textual traditions of some of the passages in the book of Ruth.

    ISBN: 0801010659 Author: Ellis R. Brotzman Format: Paperback, 208

    http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/46_books.html

     

    Samaritanernas PŒskfest I Ord och Bild / Bibliska Blodsoffer I VŒra Dagar. [Passover Celebrations of the Samaritans in Words and Pictures / Biblical Blood Offerings in Our Time].
    LARSSON, Lewis. Bookseller: Simon Finch Rare Books (London, ., United Kingdom) Book Description: Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Fšrlag, 1917., 1917. Large 4to (312 x 229 mm), pp.56, [162]. 80 black-and-white photographs, text by John D. Whiting, Selma Lagerlšf and Sven Hedin. Top edge dyed black. Original decorative paper-covered boards, upper side blocked in black and gilt with a motif depicting a ram and a blade. Cloth spine and corners, spine blocked in black and gilt; Occasional rubbing to boards at top and bottom edges, short splits to hinges at head and foot, corners rubbed. Near-fine. First edition, no.67 of 300 copies. This remarkable work made in the spring of 1914 constitutes the first photographic record of the Passover celebrations of the Samaritans on Mount Gerazim: a twelve-hour ceremony, lasting from sunset to dawn, in which Larsson shows the preparation and slaughter of the offerings, portraits of the participants, and studies of them whilst they pray. In January 1920 a selection of these photographs were published in National Geographic under the title 'The Last Israelitish Blood Sacrifice'. In March 1915 a plague of locusts had devastated the land and by 1917 the British had invaded Palestine as a province of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1910 and 1930 Larsson was principal photographer for the American Colony, a non-conformist Christian sect based in Jerusalem. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the American Colony Photographers (who also included Elijah Meyers, Furman Baldwin and later Eric Matson) jointly created a superlative collection of photographs of Palestine and the Middle-East. After Larsson left the group, Matson became exclusive owner of this archive, which he later donated to the Library of Congress (somewhat controversially under the title of 'The Eric Matson Collection'). Bookseller Inventory # 95966

    Jewish and Samaritan Version of the Pentateuch with particular stress on the differences between both texts. Exodus (Hamishe Humshei Torah: Nusach Yehudi, Nusach Shomroni im me-duyakot shel ha-shinu'im bein shtei ha-nusachot. Sefer Shemot lefi ktav yad Shomroni atik min hameah ha 11) [RARE]. Sadaqa, Avraham and Ratson Sadaqa. Bookseller: ERIC CHAIM KLINE, BOOKSELLER (ABAA ILAB) (Santa Monica, CA, U.S.A.)
    Price: US$ 200.00 Book Description: R. Mass, Tel Aviv, 1964. 8vo. 65 pp. Original paper wraps with title in Hebrew on front cover and English on rear. Separate Hebrew and English title pages at beginning and end of book. Text is double column in Hebrew. The Samaritan text is taken from a 12th century manuscript as indicated on the Hebrew title page. Text in Hebrew. Minor sunning to wraps, otherwise book is in very good condition. During the middle of the twentieth-century, there was an attempt within the Samaritan community to establish a received or authorized text. This task was primarily undertaken by Avraham and Ratzon Sadaqa (or by his Samaritan name, Ratzon ben Binyamin ben Shalach Sadaqa HaTzafri) of Holon, a community outside of Tel-Aviv where in 1954 , the president of Israel, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, helped to establish a Samaritan quarter. As of November 1, 2007, there were 712 Samaritans, around half of whom lived in Holon. (Source: Public Domain). Bookseller Inventory # 20388

    Watson, W. (William) Scott. Samaritan Pentateuch Manuscripts  

    Series Analecta Gorgiana 79, Gorgias Press ISBN 978-1-59333-892-3

    The essays collected in this volume are dedicated to the study of two particular Samaritan manuscripts of the Pentateuch. These are the first scholarly accounts of each of these texts. The first two articles are an introduction to a manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch that the author acquired through a third party in Sidon, Syria. This manuscript can be dated to 1232 CE. The final essay regards a manuscript of the Hebrew Pentateuch, which was sent to him by the High Priest of the Samaritans in Nablus, Syria. The second manuscript can be dated to 655 CE. At the time that these essays were written these were two of the very earliest clearly datable copies of the Pentateuch known to exist. In these three essays, Rev. Watson discusses the physical, historical and literary features of the manuscripts.

    http://www.gorgiaspress.com/BOOKSHOP/pc-56096-2-watson-w-william-scott-samaritan-pentateuch-manuscripts.aspx

     

    ‎Samaritan Pentateuch Manuscripts - Two First-Hand Accounts‎ by W. (William) Scott Watson‎ ‎Gp softcover‎ Bookseller reference : 204490094 ISBN : 0 

    http://www.biblio.com/bookseller_info.php?d=477109&aid=libri
     

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