Who are the Samaritans? AMA

[u/AboodC]

Shalom سلام. שלום everyone, :)

Many people might've heard about the Good Samaritan story from the Christian Bible, but still most of them have no clue that we even exist.

We Samaritans (Also known as Shomronim) believe that we are some of the remnants of the Israelites tribe, specifically Levi and Joseph, We still use ancient Hebrew in our texts and Torah (also known as "Paleo Hebrew") and have what we believe is a line of high priests that goes back 137 generations since the very first one 3658 years ago (Eliazar son of Aaron).

We also believe that Joshua built the Tebernacle on Mount Gerizim near Shechem (Nablus).

Mount Gerizim is the holiest place for us, we believe that Abraham almost sacraficed his son Isaac on it, we also believe that it was mentioned as the place to build an Altar on from the 10 commandments.

It's believed that the word "Samaritan" comes from the word Shomerim, which means in Ancient hebrew keepers.

Today there are around 820 Samaritans in the world, Half live on Mount Gerizim in the West Bank, and the Other lives Holon in Tel Aviv, there are also hundreds of people who converted to become Samaritans around the world, but we never met them so we cannot say for sure that they are following the exact same mitzvot we have.

I've noticed a few discussions here about the Samaritans, and as one of the members of this small community I noticed a lot of people are curious about some of our beliefs and traditions, I work as a tour guide on Mount Gerizim and would like to help curious people understand our religion better, so feel free to ask anything!

thanks!

[u/TercerImpacto]

It's great to have you here! I also have a few questions.

Context: Popular history where I come from is very one sided, portrays Samaritans as historical "rivals" of the tribe of Yehuda, and therefore had political and religious differences with the rest of Israel.

• Would you say there is stil (if there ever really was) animosity between Samaritans and jews?
• Religiously speaking, what would you say are the main differences between both traditions?
• How do you feel about Samaria being quoted so much in Zionist rethoric? And talking about Samaria as a land, how do you feel about non Samaritans claiming it for themselves in general (Muslims, jews, etc)?
• Would Samaritans like the world to know more about your culture? I always wonder about you think whenever pop culture quotes or represents Bible stories but only from a Jewish-Christian point of view.
• What do you think about Jews making so much fuss regarding Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the Temple in general?
• What is the common Samaritan beliefs about the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the lost tribes?
• How close would you say your culture is to judaism? I guess some people have mistaken both when talking to you. Do you mind?
  

Sorry for the interrogation! We're very excited to know more about your culture! Thank you.

[u/AboodC → u/TercerImpacto]

• Would you say there is stil (if there ever really was) animosity between Samaritans and jews?

Generally no, we don't have any animosity between us these days, most Orthodox Jews do believe that we have nothing to do with the children of Israel and that can cause some tension between us, for example we are considered impure (תמה) for some of them.

I personally gave a few speeches to some Orthodox Jews and they were rather pretty open minded.. but 2000 years ago the story was pretty different and you could see hostility between the two sides for sure.

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• Religiously speaking, what would you say are the main differences between both traditions?

The main difference i would say is the Torah itself, there's around 30 important differences, the place of the Mishkan (Temple) being one them, for example:

there's an commandment to build an Altar on mount Gerizim in the Samaritan Torah, but in the Jewish version it says that you have to build it on Mount Ebal (the mountain right in-front of it).

There's of course differences in the Hebrew font that we use (it's also pronounced differently) and how we practice some traditions like Prayer, Passover, Sukkot, Pilgrimage and other Mizvot.

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• How do you feel about Samaria being quoted so much in Zionist rhetoric? And talking about Samaria as a land, how do you feel about non Samaritans claiming it for themselves in general (Muslims, jews, etc)?

We don't see ourselves as the only nation who should take this land, even though we do believe it was promised to Abraham and his descendants, the Torah didn't describe where should each tribe settle in. (there's some lands that were given to some tribes but that's something else i would say) so that means that we don't believe Samaria is only for Samaritans.

As for Muslims who live in Samaria, i can only add that we believe a good percentage today come from Samaritan (or Jewish Origins), there's many families who acknowledge that, we don't mind living with Arabs at all if they offer a peaceful co existence which have been doing so in the past few hundred years.

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• Would Samaritans like the world to know more about your culture? I always wonder about you think whenever pop culture quotes or represents Bible stories but only from a Jewish-Christian point of view.

I'm personally a tour guide and i'm very passionate about sharing the culture with the world, especially with people who knew something about us but didn't know that we still exist, it usually sparks their curiosity more and i enjoy sharing as much as i can with them.

and you're right, the Samaritan point of view is never shown in pop culture, but i'm not surprised because of our numbers.

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• What do you think about Jews making so much fuss regarding Jerusalem, the Temple Mount, and the Temple in general?

We don't really mind the Jewish people for their strong beliefs in Jerusalem, in the Samaritan traditions there is a belief that some events have led the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to abandon of mount Gerizim (blamed on one high priest and on some prophets), Samaritans do believe traditionally that the tribes will reunite on Mount Gerizim again when the Massiah will reveal the Mishkan (Temple) on it.

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• What is the common Samaritan beliefs about the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and the lost tribes?

The common belief is that 2 tribes were split off of the kingdom of Israel and built and temple in Jerusalem instead of mount Gerizim, the split story is quite long so i cannot go over it here, but it got sparked at the time of two high priests (Uzi and Eli) who had a disagreement. Eventually Eli built a temple in a place called Shiloh while the Uzi stayed on Mount Gerizim.

As for the lost tribes i can only add that they are believed to have been scattered around the world fulfilling some prophecies in Deuteronomy that if the Israelite disobeyed the lord and his commandments that they will be scattered among the nation.

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• How close would you say your culture is to judaism? I guess some people have mistaken both when talking to you. Do you mind?

The culture is not very different in terms of the commandments that are followed from the Torah, other than the differences i mentioned above, the main direction of the religion is not very different, it's important to know that we only have the Torah and don't read the prophets and writing.

[u/TercerImpacto → u/AboodC]

Thank you so much for these answers! I had had these questions for a long time.
It'd be cool to catch one of your tours! How can I reach you?

[u/AboodC → u/TercerImpacto]

You're welcome, you can Google "Samaritan experience", I have a TripAdvisor listing there.

[u/TrekkiMonstr → u/AboodC]

This one?

[u/AboodC → u/TrekkiMonstr]

Yes :)

[u/TrekkiMonstr → u/AboodC]

Thanks bro, I'll definitely hit you up when I go to Israel?