Who are the Samaritans? The Samaritans are a religious group that have existed for over 2,000 years and whose primary religious text is the Pentateuch (Torah). (Their version is slightly different from ours, but not hugely.) The Samaritans do not have all the other books Jews have in their bible (Prophets and Writings) and they of course do not have any Rabbinic texts. They are NOT Jews, nor were they considered Jews for much of Antiquity. The Judean-Samaritan split is quite an ancient one, and the circumstances are still a matter of scholarly debate.
After the split, Jews weren't so terribly fond of the Samaritans, it seems, though they share holy scriptures. Anyone surprised? This is, incidentally, an interesting angle on the stories of the New Testament. The Samaritans didn't have a great reputation among Jews in the first century, but occasionally one would surprise you by doing the decent thing, even when Jews didn't. He might be called "the good Samaritan."
Because the Samaritans revere the Pentateuch, they celebrate Passover, which is of course the #1 holiday in the Pentateuch. Furthermore, they celebrate it in a manner that, as far as we know, best approximates what Israelites and Judeans might have done when the Temple stood. They, like the Jews, had a temple in antiquity, but they did not situate it in Jerusalem, but rather on Mt. Gerizim (about one hour north of Jerusalem by bus), which they understood to be God's chosen place. The Jerusalem temple was destroyed in 70 CE, but the Samaritan temple stood until the 6th century. And while we believe that Jewish sacrificial practices ended when the Temple was destroyed (or, in any case, soon after), the Samaritans still offer the Passover sacrifice yearly on the 14th of Nissan. This is what we went to see last week.
So what can one expect from a Samaritan Passover? The Torah prescribes that the Passover sacrifice be offered at sundown on the 14th of Nissan in God's chosen place. It is to be roasted over the fire and eaten that very night, along with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Incidentally, I had brought a sandwich along for dinner (doink! leavened bread!), so I didn't take my food out until we got on the bus to go home.
We stayed for only the first part of the ritual. The Samaritans welcome visitors for this part, and then ask that they leave so they can celebrate by themselves into the night. What we saw was the community (today about 800 people, though at its height in the 1st century more than a million) gathering together in a fenced plaza. The plaza contained a seating area for the elders, a slaughter area (basically a long trench with nearby hoses and poles for stringing up the animals after they were slaughtered), and fire pits. People were slowly assembling over the course of the afternoon, but by 1/2 hour before sunset everyone was there, and visitors ringed the entire enclosure, jockeying for a good view. For that 1/2 hour, the Samaritans chanted and then, at precisely sundown, about 20-30 sheep (from what I could see) were slaughtered. What followed was a rather complicated but efficiently executed process of skinning, disembowling, cleaning, impaling, and roasting. At this point, we left them to their BBQ.
One more note for calendar nerds: Jews did not add a leap month this year (which is why Hanukkah is going to coincide with Thanksgiving), but the Samaritans did, so visiting them did not conflict with my own Passover preparations.
I have no wish to tire my readers. On to the pictures. I must warn readers that a few are graphic.
The intrepid crew: Sarah, Sara, Raffi, Jaclyn, and me
Our bus dropped us off next to a Jewish settlement on the Mt. of Blessings, or, as this sign has it, "Bless on Mountain":
We walked into town and saw many Samaritans (mostly in white) and tourists milling around. These guys were dragging a shopping cart of sheep off to their doom.
Before things got going, we "hiked" five minutes to the top of Mt. Gerizim...
...and saw what are believed to be the ruins of the Samaritan Temple.
Meanwhile, preparations were well under way "downtown."
In this picture, you can see a Samaritan elder has taken a seat already, and behind the fence many spectators have gathered. In fact, the Samaritans erected bleachers to hold some of the spectators.
Temple iconography:
Those assembled included women and children (though only men performed the sacrifice). Many were dressed in all white. Most in casual clothes. Those doing the brunt of the work were wearing white jump suits and knee-high white rubber boots.
As we approached sunset, the assembled began to chant in Samaritan Hebrew, which I found quite difficult to understand (and, honestly, chanting in any language can be tough to understand). We were able to identify a few words.
A bunch of us climbed up onto a fence to get a better view. Hi Sara!
Precisely at sundown, the chanting stopped and the slaughtering all took place in under a minute. We couldn't see much from where we were. As soon as that was over, teams set to work skinning and disembowling the lambs, while others brought very longs spits to roast them on.
And still others stoked the fire pits:
Here's what the slaughtering trench looked like. If you look carefully, you can see a few victims that have been strung up, presumably to drain the blood.
The skins were thrown directly on the fires, but the skinned and disembowled sheep were next brought over to the fence where they were rinsed with water, salted (to remove the rest of the blood), and their guts packed with mud (not sure of the reason for that step).
So we don't end on quite such a graphic picture, here are some pictures I took around town with Samaritan Hebrew on them:
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