The Samaritan Update

January 31st 2002


New at our website:

The Samaritan Tradition

By Osher Sasony,

 

   Osher, in his ongoing writing explains the three Celebrations of the Samaritan wedding. The three celebrations has been a continuing tradition performed by the Samaritan-Israelites for as long as they can remember. The three celebrations are the Agreement, Engagement and Wedding itself. These celebrations are explained with some Biblical scriptures that model their customs.  I personally witnessed the Engagement Ceremony. It was very touching to see the nervous young man ask permission of the father of the young lady in whom he wished to marry. The young lady stood at the back of the room watching and waiting for approval. The father accepted and the couple is now married. Visit our main web page to view Osher’s Samaritan Traditions of the Samaritans-Israelites. WWW.The-Samaritans.com

Shomron


One of Our Latest Additions to our Archives:

The Problem of the Patrilineal or

Matrilineal Decent and Inter-Marriage

According to the

Samaritan and Rabbinic Halakah

By Michael Corinaldi

(Jerusalem)

 

  Michael Corinaldi does a wonderful job comparing the Samaritan, Jewish and Karaite rules (Halakha) regarding marriage. In the beginning of his article, he begins with the duel systems of birth decent concerning father (patrilineal) and mother (matrilineal). For example, to be Jewish born, one must be born of a Jewish woman. To be a Samaritan, you would have to have a Samaritan father. Michael further discusses intermarriages between the three different religious sects. It is a fascinating article worth reading. The article is listed on our cover of our web page, WWW.The-Samaritans.com

 

Editorial by Shomron


 

Get a free E-mail address from www.The-Samaritans.com/. Just go to our web site and find “get a free e-mail address” or go to http://samaritan.i-p.com/ and register. Let people know you are involved with the Samaritans.

 


An Intriguing Rock in America

   South of Albuquerque, New Mexico, lays a small town called Los Lunas. A few miles to the west of Los Lunas rest what the locals call, “Mystery Mountain.” The remains of a small-lost civilization have been discovered there. Many suggestions to the origins of the inhabitants have been part of the mystery. One of the puzzles connected with the inhabitants is a 100-ton boulder. An inscription was found on the flat side of the boulder. The text has been determined to be a mix of Greek and Samaritan letters. While many scholars propose various connections to the Samaritans, the fact remains that this people knew Greek and Paleo-Hebrew. The inscription, now known as the Los Lunas Decalogue or Ten Commandments has been deciphered, it reads as follows[1]:

 

       I am Jehovah your God who has taken you out of the land of Egypt,h

       from the house of slaves. There must be no other gods before my

       face. You must not make any idol. You must not take the name of

       Jehovah in vain. Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.

       Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long

       in the land that Jehovah your God has given to you. You must not

       murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You

       must not give a false witness against your neighbour. You must not

       desire the wife of your neighbour nor anything that is his.

 

   While this inscription does resemble a Samaritan mezuzah as suggested by Professor Cyrus Gordon (recently passed away, a great loss), Professor Reinhardt Pummer points out that the eighth verse follows the Masoretic text and not the Samaritan text. The inscription also does not follow the tenth commandment concerning Mount Gerizim. The Los Lunas Decalogue may in reality remain a true mystery.    Information for this article came from the following websites. Full credit for this article lay with these two websites. A websites also display a photo of the rock.

http://www.webcom.com/mhc/archaeology/decalogue-translation.html

http://economics.sbs.ohio-state.edu/jhm/arch/loslunas.html

Shomron


Remarkable events have occurred on Mount Gerizim:  The Light

   Exodus 3:2; And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed.

  Deuteronomy 33:15-16; And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills. And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the good will of him that dwelt in the bush: let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the top of the head of him that was separated from his brethren.

   Exodus 13:21; And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light…

   Exodus 19:18; And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire…

  Osher informed me that from time to time there appears on the top of Gerizim a bright light. This event occurs in the evening after it has grown dark the bright light appears on the mount. When I asked him concerning this, he informed me that no one goes to see what this light was and that this was not the first time this has occurred. The Samaritans have reported seeing this light in the past from time to time. I could only wonder if this was the same light that was the fire that was in the burning bush that Moses had to go see. Just thought I would share this occurrence with you.

Shomron


 

Coming Soon to Our Items For Sale From WWW.The-Samaritans.com:

 

The Samaritan Talit and  Amulets (made from the Priestly Family).

 

A great unique gift for those hard to buy for!

 


The latest Recent Additions to our Web Site:

The Celebration of Passover by the Samaritans

By Ya’aqov Ben Uzzi Ha-Cohen

 

And also read

 

BRIEF THEORITICAL POINTS OF VIEW

ABOUT THE SAMARITAN SECT OF NABLUS

BY ATEF NAGI and YUSEF ABU-EL-HASAN- Cohen

 

These writings can be found at

www.The-Samaritans.com


WIN A FREE BUMPER STICKER

   Our website has the written work of ATEF NAGI and YUSEF ABU-EL-HASAN- Cohen entitled the BRIEF THEORITICAL POINTS OF VIEW ABOUT THE SAMARITAN SECT OF NABLUS.” This work displays a list of books that were for sale during the time when Nablus was under Jordanian domain. Identify as many of the books as possible and win a free bumper sticker (www.The -Samaritans.com). Send your answers and your mailing address to webmaster@The-Samaritans.com or Shomron@Yahoo.com. Offer expires January 30th, 2002. Offer extended to February 30th.


STILL LOOKING FOR COPIES OF:

Written material from 1907-1908 by Jacob ben Aaron, the Samaritan High Priest. I cannot locate “Circumcision Among the Samaritans,” “The Messianic Hope of the Samaritans,” and “The Samaritan Sabbath.” Any help would be appreciated to finish my collection of his works. Please contact Shomron at Shomron@Yahoo.com .


For Sale:

Samaritan Interactive CD: -ROM from Nes Multimedia Production Ltd. The CD works on Windows and Macintosh computers. It displays many photos and mini movies. It addresses the Samaritan religion, chronicles, community, language and literature. There is even a quiz that can test your knowledge. The music on the cd-rom is performed by the Samaritan singers (Osher sings with them on this cd-rom). Full of information.

Other items: A Samaritan Cook book in Hebrew, The cd of the Samaritan Singers, A copy of the Samaritan Torah, post cards of the Samaritans or if you are looking for something different. Interested parties can contact Osher at webmaster@the-samaritans.com

Thank you!

   Osher and Larry would like to thank you for visiting the website, www.The-Samaritans.com in the past and hope you visit us again real soon. We ask you to forward this Update to your friends. The purpose at our website is the education of the existence and history of the Samaritan-Israelites, descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Israel.  Answering questions from surfers will always be our top priority of our site. We try to maintain our archives of articles to be the best location on the net for the advancement of Samaritan-Israelite studies in English as well as Hebrew. Many gracious scholars have permitted us to exhibit their related articles. Recently we have been working on expanding our website. We do hope you enjoy visiting our site and recommend it to your friends. Again we thank you for visiting us at www.The-Samaritans.com. Take care and may you be blessed from the Holy One from above.

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[1] This translation was taken from the following website in which we owe credit. http://www.webcom.com/mhc/archaeology/decalogue-translation.html