An Interview with Sharon Sullivan

On a Manuscript of 'Kitab al-Hulf' by Hadr (Finhas) b. Ishaq al-Hiftawi

by Haseeb Shehadeh

In this study an attempt is made to sehd light on a new and unknown Smaritan Arabic manuscript whose subject concerns the differences between Jews and Samaritans. I will refer to this manuscript by the name of its owner, Larry Rynearson, (hereafter, LR) of Florida. Mr. Rynearson purchased the manuscript on 23 August 2006 from Ulrich Hobbeling, Antiquariat Th. Stenderhoff, Bergstrasse 70-48143 Muenster +49-251-414990 www.stenderhoff.com . Mr Rynearson was kind enough to send an electronic version of the manuscript to me August 2010, and I extend my sincere thanks to him. The number of Samaritan manuscripts housed in public libraries as well as in individual collections worldwide is more than 3,500. The lion's share, some 1,350 in number, is found at the National Russian Library in St. Petersburg.

LR consists of 175 pages marked with contemporary Arabic numerals. Every page contains 22 lines. Pentateuchal quotations are given, as usual, in Samaritan script......

Con't reading in PDF  Kitab al-Hulf   

On a Manuscript of 'Kitab al-Hulf' by Hadr (Finhas) b. Ishaq al-Hiftawi, line 8.

SEVEN STATIONS FROM THE REED SEA TO MOUNT SINAI

A.B.-The Samaritan News Editorial - Issue no. 1088-1089 - June 10, 2011

The Israelite Samaritan tradition has a counting of seven stations for the People of Israel in the Sinai Desert, and its sub-deserts, on their way from the Reed Sea to Mount Sinai.  However, these seven stations were seven events that happened within and between these stations and the next station:  The Reed Sea, Marrah, in the Desert of Shor, Elim, the Desert of Sin, Rephidim, in front of the war hill with Amalak, and in front of Mount Sinai. 

Pharaoh and the elite of his army [that were called the chosen of his generals] were defeated and destroyed in the Reed Sea, with their army and their chariots which drowned in the sea.  The Almighty split the sea and made the water to form two walls on each side, and between them the people of Israel passed through on dry land, when the army of Egypt was chasing after them.  However they were fast enough to cross the sea before the army of Pharaoh captured them.  There is a known disagreement between Torah seekers and its scholars as to whether Pharaoh also drowned with his army in the Reed Sea.  The greatest sage of the Samaritans, Marqeh, of the 4th century did not leave any doubt that Pharaoh was also drowned.  Yes, the written text in the Torah is a little bit unclear when the text describes in the Song of the Sea and the previous chapter about the chariot of Pharaoh that drowned in the water, but not precisely about him.  The ancient tradition that Marqeh mentioned contained Pharaoh between the casualties, not only the chariot of Pharaoh and his army but also he himself drowned in the sea.  "Pharaoh and his men, you have drowned in the Reed Sea," said the poet Marqeh.  Nothing was left from the 600 chariots that Pharaoh brought with him, not even one.  And the people of Israel went out of Egypt proud, in front of the Egyptians, and this vision of the people of Israel arriving at the west shore of the sea without any casualties was also the last vision that the army of Egypt saw before the water of the sea covered them and their chariots and drowned them. 

Due to the distance of time of all seven stations being between Pesach to Shavuot [the Festival of Weeks], all together 50 days, it means that in every station on average the People of Israel camped for seven days.  This was exactly the same period of time that was dedicated to each of the ten plagues previous to the stations and the plague of the firstborn that marks the meeting point between the end of the plagues and the start of camping in each station.  Between plague to plague was a separation of seven days, including the plague itself and the length of its strike "and seven days were fulfilled after the Almighty struck the Nile."  Thus seven days separated each station from the other station adding to that the days that the People of Israel stayed on their way to the first station to the Reed Sea when they camped in Succot in order to get back to Egypt and get the bones of Joseph.  When they departed from Succot in order to bring the bones of Joseph, as he made their forefathers swear, according to the tradition they arrived at the Reed Sea on Friday and camped at the sea.  They ate the Pesach in haste when they left Egypt in the evening, three days they went until they arrived at the Reed Sea.  In this short period they found the bones of Joseph, and brought them on the shoulders of the heads of the tribe of Ephraim.  However Pharaoh was advised by his ministers and regretted on the permission he gave the People of Israel to exit Egypt, and decided to chase after them with the elite of his army.  On Motzeh Shabbat, according to our tradition the people of Israel raised their eyes and saw the Egyptians traveling after them.  The story of the big miracle that happened to them at the Reed Sea is known to all of us. 

In the morning of the day after, Sunday after the first Shabbat, their first Shabbat outside of Egypt, the day that was appointed by the Almighty afterwards as the first day of the counting of the Omer they saw the corpses of the Egyptian army heroes floating on top of the water, and among them the great Pharaoh who was considered as the god of the Egyptians.  They were thrilled from the miracle and believed in the Almighty and his slave, Moses.  Yes, they were armed when they went out of Egypt with weapons that they borrowed from the Egyptians, but despite their numerical advantage over the little army that Pharaoh brought they had a lack of military experience in comparison to Pharoah's army.  They had no other choice but to wait for the salvation of the Almighty, a salvation that was provided to them by a strong hand and outstretched arm of the Almighty. 

From the Reed Sea, after they recovered from the great visions, they followed Moses the great prophet that knew the desert from his long sixty year stay within it.  As a result of that, he became the first travel guide in the history that we know from the history itself.  They walked for three days in the desert and arrived to the next station, Marrah in the Desert of Shor, one of the deserts of Sinai.  The place is called Marrah because of its bitter water that was not drinkable.  The thirst made them forget all about the miracle of the Reed Sea and the people were shouting at Moses "what are we going to drink!"  And it was as though the miracle was ordered at that moment, less important in comparison to the miracle at the Reed Sea, but in the eyes of the thirsty who feel they are dying from thirst the sweetening of the water was for them a huge miracle.  The people drank until satisfied.  The poor bread, the fruits and the vegetables that they brought from Egypt were hardly enough for them now before they would be spoiled and be inedible.

From Marrah they moved to the third station, Elim.  In Elim there were twelve wells and seventy palm trees.  Our tradition sees those numbers hinting about the twelve tribes and the seventy sages, two institutions that were established in the second year of leaving Egypt.  This station was marked by a double miracle.  The people were great in number, around 2 million individuals, including 600,000 individual men at the age to be in the army.  Notice how all these peoples broke their hunger and thirst only from 70 palm trees and 12 wells of water.  No rivers, no brooks, and not even streams - but the minimal expression as a source of water, wells.  The miracle was doubled by the fact that they have dates to eat in a season that has no dates because this juicy fruit is ready only at the beginning of autumn, at the seventh month of the year, and they were only at the end of the first month after leaving Egypt.  This was the miracle, dates to eat in the beginning of spring. 

The People of Israel continued on their journey and arrived, following Moses to the Desert of Sin, one of the deserts of Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month from the leaving of Egypt.  The long journey from Elim to the Desert of Sin made them tired and hungry.  The dates that they picked and put in their bags were gone.  They could not stand the gnawing hunger.  Again the last miracle was forgotten.  They shouted at Moses and Aaron to give them bread to eat and meat to be sated.  The Almighty never ceased from His responsibility to them.  He sent down from the sky quails to be sated and the manna, bread from the sky, to eat.  This is the opportunity to learn from Moses the value of Shabbat, the need to take rest, and to collect food that will be enough for two days, Friday and Shabbat. 

There is no place here to talk about the manna, we wrote about this subject enough in past issues.  It seems as though the people of Israel got used to miracles, but still every discomfort caused them to doubt the existence of the Almighty and to describe in unreal ways their living in Egypt.  This stress was the best opportunity to encourage the existence of a group of inciters, among them that doubted the leadership of Moses, and like it is the way of inciters that they preferred the lie over the reality, they described their days of stay in Egypt as truly a paradise.  These inciters always found and will find an open ear by those in which their spirit is short and their belief is very little.  These inciters will always trust the short memory of the people.  In reality those who were seated in Egypt next to the pots of meat and ate bread to be sated were the Egyptian employers and not them. 

This is why they again found themselves very thirsty when they arrived in Refidim.  But again the miracle was waiting for them.  Moses struck the rock and brought out water for them, enough to gain power to be prepared for the next experience.  In the next station, also in Refidim, before the big hill in which Aaron, Moses and Hur climbed to the top to watch from there the war of Joshua and the people of Israel in Amalak. This was a war between wanderers.  The will of the survival of the people of Israel caused them to better use the weapons that they brought from Egypt and the Reed Sea.  Although many of them were killed in the war, because of their lack of experience in comparison to the organized tribe of wanderers that the Amalakites were, this fact does not reduce from the potency of the miracle.  Its beginning was watching Moses, the great leader, sitting on the big stone upon the hill and his hands raised up and supported by the hands of Aaron and Hur.  These arms of victory was the miracle that encouraged the win over Amalak and its people and to destroy them by the sword in the fight that continued from sunrise to sunset.  The fight and the victory established them to be stronger and more united people who for the first time fought for themselves, led by Joshua ben Nun, in which this fight marked him as the next leader after Moses.  Until the present day Samaritan women wear red as a memory to the blood shed by Israelite fighters of Amalak. 

Sated of miracles and war, the people became deserving of the best miracle of all, the miracle of giving them the Torah on Mount Sinai, the seventh station.  They deserved at that point in time to receive the commandments that came to distinguish them in contrast to other nations by the belief in one God, the keeping of Shabbat, and honoring the parents.  All of those that they were not killing, not coveting, not stealing property and souls, deserve to receive the words of God, in which at the end the word of God will be heard and his offering will be received from over his altar in the chosen place, Mount Gerizim, that commandment of which the lack of it is very prominently noticed in the Jewish Masoretic text.    

So what is the common point to all of these stations that the people of Israel travelled to in the fifty days until they received the commandment at Mount Sinai?  In each place they are begging and receiving by great miracles, of what they ask for.  The asking and the receiving are the common point that make together the giant miracles of splitting the Reed Sea before them with the recognition of them as a chosen people that deserve to receive the Torah. 

ARE THE SAMARITANS IN NEED OF A SECOND SYNAGOGUE ON MOUNT GERIZIM?
A.B. - The Samaritan News Editorial - Issue no. 1086-1087, 20.5.2011

Let's start at the end:  We support having six synagogues in Holon, and another five synagogues on Mount Gerizim.  

Did we exaggerate? -Maybe.

However, only in this way can we sharpen the discussion around the question of "need" or "no need" in having a second synagogue on Mount Gerizim.

Synagogues are one of the brilliant signs to existence and activities of a community around them.  In our many travels abroad we as guests visit several Jewish communities.  The chief rabbi of the community is very proud when he describes to us the greater number of synagogues in his town.  One of our best friends, the Rabbi Jeffrey Stipman from St. Louis Missouri, welcomes 4000 worshippers in his synagogue, which is only one of four Jewish Reform synagogues in St. Louis, although the largest one.  

Added to this number are another two synagogues of the Jewish orthodox comment, another two synagogues of the Jewish conservative community, and one synagogue of the reconstructionist community.  Hence, you will grasp the concept of growth within the Jewish community in St. Louis, now in the tens of thousands.  

Let's come back to us.  The growing Samaritan community is growing at an almost satisfactory pace, although it was at one time less than 150 individuals in the second decade of the 20th century but then increased to over 750 individuals in the second decade of the 21st century.  Initially all Samaritans were in Nablus, and there were a few who gathered in the small hall of the 1000 year old synagogue, in the old Jasmine neighborhood in Nablus.  The big earthquake of 1927 hit Nablus and destroyed the old synagogue and many houses in the neighborhood.  Most of the Samaritans were forced to move to the Western edge of Nablus in 1933, and they continued to pray in the old synagogue that was barely renovated in 1947 with the help of the City of Nablus and the General British Governor, Herbert Samuel.  

A new Samaritan synagogue was built in the neighborhood, and there the Samaritans worshipped until 1998 when the last remaining Samaritans moved to have a constant existence in Kiriat Luza on Mount Gerizim.  In the middle of the 1960s the big synagogue on Mount Gerizim was established and intended for festivals and pilgrimages so as to contain all the worshippers of Nablus and Holon.  Those were happy days for the Samaritans when the whole community gathered in one place and and had a process of consolidation from the best among them.  

In 1955 in Holon the Samaritans gathered from various places in the Dan district to one single neighborhood.  

After a tearful negotiation that lasted ten years the first Samaritan synagogue in the State of Israel had its benediction.  

In the two centers of Holon and Kiriat Luza the Samaritan Community began to increase in number.  For many years the Nablus community "supplied" many of the Samaritans who moved from Nablus first to Tel Aviv and Jaffa and then to Holon, after the establishment of the neighborhood.  

Only in the last two decades the two communities and the natural increase of the community became stable, and demonstrated signs of growth.  The community in Holon had increased from 90 individuals in 1955 to over 400 in 2011.  The Samaritan community on Mount Gerizim that was in the last 40 years at a constant number of 250 began to increase in the last two decades to an additional 100 individuals.  

The blessed increase emphasized two facts: One, the only Synagogue in Holon became to small for all the worshippers, and when they could not make the building wider from its current size then the need arose for a second synagogue.  Two, in the big and only synagogue on Mount Gerizim also became too small to contain the two communities during festivals and Sabbaths.  

In Holon the problem was temporarily solved by the initiative of several of the worshippers who found an area on the north side of the neighborhood, in which they put two comfortable caravans joined together - and hence became the second synagogue.  With the move of those worshippers to the second synagogue, the overcrowded pressure within the big synagogue was relieved.  We can only say "temporarily" because now the space once again has become too small in the big synagogue, and especially when the worshippers of the second synagogue join the big synagogue during the prayers of the first month and the seventh month of the year.  The tight fit became too much for many worshippers during the Day of Atonement when all the beloved women of the community crowd in at the backside of the synagogue.  To other worshippers this uniting of the small synagogue to the bigger synagogue is a blessing and sign of unification within the community for a short period.  In a decade or two the community of Holon must build a third synagogue, or perhaps if some young men from the community will make an initiative and decide to build an additional community in one of the other cities within the State of Israel with their own synagogue.  Amen and Amen.  

All of this leads us to the title of our article.  The difficult pressure of having only one single synagogue on Mount Gerizim during the Passover and Unleavened Bread Festival, and the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost), as a result of the two communities of worshippers of Holon and Gerizim neighborhoods joining together as one body at those times, has triggered some self-starters in Holon to collect donations in order to build a second synagogue on Mount Gerizim.  Already 150,000 NIS was collected for this purpose.  There are Samaritans from Holon who are ready to donate considerable sums to this aim.  There are those who already located the area on Mount Gerizim for the second synagogue near the pilgrimage route.  

However, here the self-starters are blocked by a resistance of the senior priests on Mount Gerizim, the High Priest Aaron and his Vice Priest, Nathaniel, the two honorable priests are not principally denying the idea, on the contrary they think that many synagogues are a good sign for the community, but they say that the condition for this is not yet ripe for the making.  The community on Mount Gerizim is still too small to fill the single synagogue on Mount Gerizim when the Holon community is not present, and there are still big spaces at the back of the synagogue when it was made wider in 1981 in order to contain the worshippers from Holon.  The place was expanded even more thanks to the initiative of the Mount Gerizim committee, with a huge porch near the gate of the synagogue, and there many worshippers can gather on hot days of the year.  Anyway on cold days on Mount Gerizim the synagogue is wide enough for all worshippers of Kiriat Luza.  The Vice High Priest, Priest Nathaniel, asked: "I understand the ambition of some priests that want to be cantors in a second synagogue, but why didn't they comply with my direct announcement from the pages of A.B. the Samaritan News to come forward and be a cantor in the big synagogue?  The second question: is it rational that because two or three days of pressure in the single synagogue on Mount Gerizim during the whole year justifies the establishment of a second synagogue that will be empty for most days of the year, when the single existing synagogue is too big for the size of the Mount Gerizim community?"

In conclusion, the High Priest claims as do most of the members of the Mount Gerizim community that regardless in the not so near future there will be a need to establish another synagogue on the Mountain because the Mount Gerizim community is increasing every year, but at the present there is no need for a second synagogue.

So what should they do with the 150,000 NIS that has already been collected?  First,it is not for sure that everybody who donated money to the big synagogue in Holon knew that they would use his donation to establish a second synagogue on Mount Gerizim.  

Secondly, the priests of the community in Holon should consider the example of the priests and worshippers from the small synagogue in Holon with the activity of their donations in which they are renovating and decorating.  Only recently they added stone walls around the two caravans.  

We must now ask the question, are all works of renovation and maintenance in the big synagogue in Holon completed, so that it is impossible to utilize the 150,000 NIS that was collected for establishing a new synagogue on Mount Gerizim?  

It seems that the final word in this regard has not been said yet.

A.B. Services

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