Ramp (not Stairway) to Heaven

We (my wife and I) went to the Western Wall for a bar mitzvah this past Monday morning & I felt the nothing that I have felt there previously. I didn't touch it & didn't feel the slightest inclination that I should. I said the IS prayers that I say every day & recited the Shma in IS mode as I now do. What an irony - the would-be Israelite Samaritan praying at the Western Wall.

 

The Shabbat afternoon before last, at the lesson that the Rabbi always gives over the third Shabbat meal at our synagogue, we discussed this classic Chassidic text, specifically the last paragraph. Where the English in the link uses the word "level", the original Hebrew (the lesson was in Hebrew) uses the word madrega, which can mean "level" but it is also the modern Hebrew word for "step" as in to go up or down steps (but not to take a step). An insight just came to me & I said that the problem with that text is that the Torah never talks about steps, only ramps. True Torah spirituality is not akin to going up (or down) steps, but a ramp. I cited Exodus 20:22 (see parallel Hebrew & English texts): "Neither shalt you go up by steps to Mine altar, that your nakedness not be uncovered thereon." From this, the Rabbis taught that the priests went up to the altar via a ramp. (Click here.) What "nakedness" is the Torah talking about here? It cannot be, I said, actual nakedness because the priests wore short pants (i.e. "linen breeches", Exodus 28:42) specifically to cover their nakedness! I said that I heard once that Exodus 20:22 must be referring to spiritual nakedness, i.e. that of going up a step and stopping as it were on one's spiritual journey to get closer to God. When it comes to such a spiritual journey one is either ascending or descending, going forward or going back, there is no standing in place, which steps would allow you to do. And standing in place on a ramp is much more difficult than on steps (try it without a pronounced lean). I said that the Chassidic text's use of a steps analogy is faulty; it should have used a ramp.

 

Why am I telling you all this? What I didn't say at the lesson at the synagogue is that I think classical rabbinic (orthodox) Judaism is like steps but that the Israelite Samaritan (version of our) faith is like a ramp and, therefore, closer to the Torah. One can rest, possibly for a long time, on steps as one climbs. There can be landings on the way. These stops & halts can facilitate change. Look at how classical rabbinic Judaism has changed and evolved over the centuries and millenia. Extra books (the non-Torah parts of the Tanakh, which is what we call what Christians call the "Old Testament") were added on. We built Temples. Then we developed a non-priestly clergy (i.e. the rabbis), then we articulated an Oral Torah, which eventually gave rise to the Mishna & Talmud. Then the Chassidic movement was born. All of these developments were made possible, or at least facilitated, through classical rabbinic Judaism's step-by-step (every pun intended) progress up historical/spiritual steps. (And remember, steps are alien to the Torah.) The Israelite Samaritan (version of our) faith has, by contrast, changed but very little over the centuries. Because its spiritual journey has been up a (Torah-true) ramp, where it is much harder to stand in place to stop and refit for long, its history has been marked by an enduring sameness. There's a famous rabbinical legend in the Talmud (Tractate Menachot) that God plopped Moses down in Rabbi Akiva's study hall one day & Moses was quite bewildered & didn't understand what Rabbi Akiva & his students were talking about. I would venture that if, say, Moses, as the ISs understand him, or Baba Rabba, were to visit an IS synagogue today, they would fit right in. 

 

Ramps vs. steps.

 

The two Jewish Temples, of course, had steps but the Temples are a post-Torah development. The Torah itself talks only about the Tabernacle, in which there was no steps, only a ramp.

Weird dream

I had a weird dream earlier this week. I dreamed I was with a group of other men waiting to be circumcised. I said (to whoever was in charge) that I am already circumcised and I even showed him. (Despite my showing my penis there was no sexual or erotic content to this dream whatsoever; it was not that kind of a dream.)

I know that circumcision is a sign of one's being inducted into the Jewish faith, whether you're born into it or converted. Israelite Samaritan males are, of course, circumcised at 8 days just like we are. I imagine that someone who isn't circumcised (a non-Jew) who wished to adopt the IS (version of our) faith would have to be circumcised & I also imagine that a Jew who wished to adopt the IS (version of our) faith would be OK as is (no drawing a drop of blood with a pinprick as a symbolic circumcision).

I wonder what this dream means in terms of attachment to the IS (version of our) faith. Any ideas?

Henry V & the latest mikveh scandal

Last Shabbat (of Chol Hamoed Sukkot, the third Shabbat of the month), I read prayer #2 in shul (I keep a printout in my tallis bag, sneaky me) and noticed the lines

...Come to us and let our forsaken peoples return to us and gather all our brothers among the Israelites, and return them to the land of our forefathers...

Going back to what my IS friend told me on Aargareezem, that they see us (Jews) as brothers, I looked at this line from the prayer & I thought, the ISs regard us as brothers and pray for us, and how do we see them? Our attitude toward them is like the Duke of Exeter's remarks (in Henry V, Act II, Scene IV) regarding King Henry V's attitude toward the Dauphin:

Scorn and defiance; slight regard, contempt,

I don't know about defiance but we certainly look at them with scorn, slight regard & contempt. Ugh!

I am reading about the latest o'dox mikveh scandal in the US. Yuck! I can't help but think that such a thing could not happen in the IS community simply because the ISs hold that a wife after her seven (not 12!; rabbis made up the extra five days; the Torah specifies only seven days) days of separation may bathe in the privacy of her own home (with only God looking her over) before resuming relations with her husband. It seems to me that the ISs thereby do something radical: They trust the wife & don't make it super-complicated, which in turn requires lots of rabbis to explain it to the rest of us, build & maintain the mikve to exacting specifications, which gives them even more control, Keep it simple and trust the wife. Wow. How radical.

"...who has not made me a woman."

Months ago I stopped saying the morning blessing in which we praise God, "who has not made me a woman." I've seen more than a few of the o'dox apologetics for this, some of them by o'dox women, and they just don't wash. They all seem to be a variant on theme of "Since men are spiritually weaker than women, God gave us lots of particular mitzvot & that is what we are thanking Him for." Even if one accepts this idea (I don't, not any more), it still doesn't sound right ("...who has not made me a woman"). In fact, it sounds rather horrible. Our Sages could have & should have found a better way to express the idea. So I've been saying what women say & thus praise God, "for making me according to His will." Works for me.

By the way, the ISs reject the o'dox Jewish idea of women being exempt from time-bound positive mitzvot (scroll down to the bottom of the first section). Where is that written? (as my IS friend would say.)

It's a lock

OK, the title of this post is a pun on the Hebrew word ne'ila, which in modern Hebrew means "locking." It is also the name of the final prayer service that ends Yom Kippur. So yesterday as everybody shouted the Shema (see the foregoing link, scroll down to "Final Affirmations"), I shouted it in the IS mode. Nobody heard me (due to the noise of over 100 people shouting all at once) but I heard me (and God, of course) :-) When we next shouted "Adonai hu ha-Elohim" seven times, I shouted "Shema u-Eloowenu" seven times. Again, I heard me (and God again; He's a good listener).

I've noticed that at synagogue on the Shabbat & on holydays, I now invariably stand against the wall with my arms folded, almost out of reflex. I guess this is my way of showing that I would so rather be somewhere else & I'm trying to minimize my presence, as it were.

Now I've got to go build my faux sukkah...

Sabi a-Libee

Down with fences!

Hi all!

Finally, after more than a year, I went to Mt. Gerizim, Aargaareezem as the Israelite Samaritans (IS) say, yesterday (Wednesday, 17 September)!!

I took the day off work (I have gobs of vacation days), took the car to the garage in the morning for its once-every-10,000-kilometers tuneup, ran some errands & then drove to Kiryat Luza on "the Mountain" as my IS friend calls it. As I drove I was happy, I was enthusiastic, I was nervous, I was just glad to be finally going there after thinking about it, praying about it and wanting to be there. At last I was on my way! (I gave four people rides between various points along the way. I figure that it's always good to do good and help others.)

(NOTE: I was flattened at work on Thursday & had no down time in which to continue my post. It is now Sunday, 21 September.)

When I drove up the winding, steep hill to the Jewish community of Har Bracha, and then along the ridge to Kiryat Luza, I was even more excited to actually be there. I called my IS friend, the same gentleman who I met at his home in Holon last May (see post #3), parked just up the street from the Passover firepits and then went to his flat. Like most Holon ISs he also has a flat in Kiryat Luza. We spoke at length.

He asked me why I had come & what I wanted. I told him that since my last visit to Aargaareezem (which he taught me to pronounce correctly) I couldn't get it out of my head, or my heart. I told him about what the old Amish grandfather said in Witness ("What you take into your hands you take into your heart") and said that it was like my hands themselves remembered how Givot Olam felt (see post #2), that they kind of tingled whenever I thought about it. I said that something he had told me last May really hit home with me.

When I mentioned our view about building a fence around the Torah (look at the third paragraph up from the bottom), he said a fence for what, to keep the Torah in or us out/away? He said that they see the Torah itself as their protective fence that doesn't need another fence.

This has really stuck with me. Fences are barriers that impede contact. Even if they are intended to protect whatever is inside they have the effect of keeping you away from it. He asked me about how I had become frum. I told him & then added about how doubts had begun to creep in, that I could no longer accept much of what I used to. I said that maybe it's just that now I've started thinking, critically, about much of what I had previously simply accepted. I said that it bugged me that while many ISs seemed to know alot about us, very few of us knew anything about them other than the slurs in the Mishnah and Talmud & the they-worship-a-dove-shaped-idol calumny. It also bugged me that they see us as cousins (my IS friend corrected me & said, "No, we see you as brothers!") while we see them as complete strangers & heretics. I showed him my copy of the Samaritan Torah in English & said that it was my absolute pleasure to read it every week & study it as closely as I could, paying special attention to the differences between our version and theirs. I told him that soon I will mark 28 years since I came to Israel and that it was a great pity I hadn't discovered the IS community then. He asked me why & I said that because I would have moved to Holon and asked to join their community and accept the IS (version of our) faith. I told him that this past Tisha B'Av, I had no idea why I was fasting! Actually, I told him, I knew exactly why, because I had to be a model to our boys & because everyone in our neighborhood did and if I didn't it would cause a big stir and start tongues a-wagging; I felt like such a hypocrite. He then asked me about the boys & my wife. The boys have no idea how deep my interest in the IS is & I want it to stay that way. He said, "And your wife?" I said that I think she hopes that this is merely a passing meshugaas on my part but that deep down I think she knows that it is not. So, I said, I keep this very private. Our friends and neighbors would think me not only a heretic but a loon as well & I do not want to bring that on my family. I told my friend that my wife is God's greatest blessing to me & that I will not risk my marriage. He said, "No, God forbid." I told him that since I cannot be on Aargaareezem (except for the occasional, hopefully twice yearly) visit, I will have to keep it in my heart. I said I hope that God does not account me a coward & he said that he was sure He does not. I told him that I had taught myself to say the Shema in the IS mode from a YouTube clip. He corrected my pronunciation & now I think I've got it down pretty good. He asked me my Hebrew name & I said "Tzvi the Levite" or Tzvi Haleivee in modern Hebrew. He said that in IS mode my name would be pronounced Sabi A-libee, so that is who I am, Sabi A-libee.

He then invited me to accompany him up from Kiryat Luza to the summit, the grounds of which are part of the Mt. Gerizim National Park. As we drove the short distance up to the summit, I asked him if he & the IS community minded that everyone came to gawk at them while they brought the Passover offering. I think most Jews view ISs as some kind of quaint, museum-people. My friend smiled & said that while ISs were certainly not a museum-people he welcomed the visitors & said the more, the merrier, that they were welcome to come and see them and hopefully learn something.

When we got to the summit, we sat & had tea with the small Israel Nature and Parks Authority staff at the office at the gate, all of whom knew my IS friend well. (ISs enter the park for free.) We had a nice chat. They showed me how high the snow piled up during a huge storm we had last winter. The summit is much higher than nearby Har Bracha & received much more snow than it did. My friend & I then walked right out to Givot Olam. I marveled that while the site of the where the Temples stood on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is ultra-off limits, and that to visit even the parts of the Temple Mount where those of our rabbis who say you can go up there say you can go, you have to wear special shoes, go to a mikve, etc., any IS could walk on any part of Aargareezem in general and right up to Givot Olam, where the Tabernacle/Mishkan stood, the holiest part. My IS friend quoted the Torah portion from this past Shabbat (Deuteronomy 30:14): "But the thing is very close to you..." And I replied, "And it doesn't need a fence!" He said we had to take our shoes off. I asked him if we should take our socks off too. He said that we didn't have to but I took mine off anyway; I wanted my feet to feel Givot Olam too, not just my hands! I knelt and ran my hands over the bare rock. I felt calm. I felt peace. I felt power. I looked up at my friend and, quoting Jacob (Genesis 28:17), said (in Hebrew), "This is none other but the house of God and this is the gate of Heaven." He repeated the phrase in IS Hebrew and said that he would go back to the gate and wait for me and that I should take as much time as I wanted. There was no one else at the Park that day so when he went back I was all alone, just me and God. I bent forward and ran my hands over the rock again and then lay down flat on my face with my arms and legs stretched. I wanted as much of me to feel as much of Givot Olam as possible. I gripped the rock, and felt it on my face and feet, prayed as hard as I ever have. I asked God to please not account me a spiritual coward. I thanked Him for the privilege of being there. I asked Him to please grant that one day I could pray on Aargareezem not as an occasional visitor or tourist. I asked Him that since I couldn't be on Aargareezem in person, bodily, I asked Him to help me keep Aargareezem in my heart until my next visit (probably before Passover; I can see myself going to Aargareezem to recharge my batteries twice a year, before Passover & before the autumn holidays). I asked Him to please forgive me as I bow and pray in the House of Rimmon. I was there a good 10-15 minutes. Then I got up, stepped off of Givat Olam, put my shoes & socks back on and walked back to the gate, passing the Altar of Isaac (where Abraham offered up Isaac) along the way.

My friend & I then drove back to Kiryat Luza where we had lunch in the same restaurant where my colleague & I had eaten last year. After lunch, I bought a 1-kilogram plastic jar of the ISs's excellent raw tehina/tahini paste. We went back to my friend's apartment. We embraced and then I left to drive back home. I felt exhilirated that I had been to Aargareezem after more than a year!

That night as I walked the dogs (in an isolated area where I could let them off the leash) I said the Shema & repeated Sabi A-libee a few times. I thought about the IS's fenceless version of our faith (as it were) and how liberating it is. I think it lets you concentrate on the forest & not see the minutae of each tree as a world in itself. I kept going back to "But the thing is very close to you..." I felt it close to me.

The next morning, as I walked to synagogue for morning prayers, late as usual, I started saying the morning blessings & psukei d'zimra (chapters of Psalms; click here, see under "Outline of Services" ) to myself as I walked (as usual; so I wouldn't be so behind when I got to synagogue). As part of the morning blessings, one says the first line of the Shema (see above). So I stopped & said it (in the IS mode) with as much concentration as I could. A neighbor who was coming down the steps from his building saw me & complimented me on the intent & intensity of my praying. This guy actually knows a little about the ISs but would probably keel over if he knew what exactly I was praying.

But then as I actually walked into the House of Rimmon (aka the synagogue), I got all moist-eyed as it hit me. "But the thing is very close to you..."? Not to me. I was as far away from Aargareezem and the IS community and their (version of our) faith as ever. I cannot be where I want to be and I do not want to be where I am. I am ever conscious of being in the House of Rimmon, that the religious life I am leading is second best (as it were). But, like I said, I will have to try to keep Aargareezem in my heart & trust that God's plan for me, be it as He will, is for my benefit. I know that He knows what He is doing.

I printed out these IS prayers & say some of them every day & others on Shabbat as the case may be.

On "Rosh Hashanah" last week I was rather reserved. I do not accept that the first of the (seventh, counting from Nissan, as per Exodus 12:2) month of Tishrei is in fact the first of the year. I carefully avoided wishing people a Shanah Tova (a "good year") and instead used either the Hebrew Chag Sameach or the Yiddish Gut Yontef, both of which mean simply "Happy Holiday". (Click here, holiday #4, to see how the ISs view the day.) Leviticus 23:24-25 specifies that this holyday is one day; I would love to know how or sages' decreeing that this holyday would be two days does not constitute adding to the Torah, which, of course, is strictly forbidden. I also think that our sages' learning that the first of Tishrei is a "new year day" based on Exodus 23:16 ("and the feast of ingathering, at the end of the year") is weak (very) and tenuous in the extreme.

(Oh, by the way, it's now Tuesday, September 30th.)

I've decided that I cannot say the "Hymn of Honor" (or Anim Zemirot) anymore (click here & here). I cannot accept its over-the-top anthropomorphism (God has curly black hair & wears tefillin). I think that even as metaphors these go waaay too far. They make me feel uncomfortable & I cannot say them any more. (If you'll say that God has black hair and wears tefillin then it's only a very short jump to believing that He can father children; no offense to my Christian friends!!!!!).

I think that this is it for now.

Yom Kippur is this coming Friday night-Saturday. The ISs mark it one day earlier, on Thursday night-Friday. This is because we manipulate the calendar so that Yom Kippur will never fall on a Friday or Sunday (or Tuesday). (Drop down to "Step 5: Applying the Dechiyot".)

This is Sabi A-libee :-) signing off for now.

Three Clueless Weeks

Last week we concluded the three weeks between our dawn-to-nightfall fast of the 17th of (the Hebrew month of) Tammuz and the 'round-the-clock fast of the Ninth of (the Hebrew month of) Av. The whole period, culminating on the 9th of Av, is centered on mourning for our destroyed temples & hoping that the third - and presumably permanent - will be built soon.

Needless to say I was not into it. I fasted on the 17th of Tammuz (July 15) & on the 9th of Av last Tuesday (August 5) for appearances' sake. We still live where we live (an entirely religious area) and I still have to set an example for the boys. Also, my wife would not approve of me not fasting. The "appearances sake" thing makes me something of a hypocrite. After all, I am doing something I no longer believe in. But I do not wish to start our friends' & neighbors' tongues a-wagging and bring opprobrium on our family. I think that is a legitimate concern. And as I said way back in Intro Post #5, my wife is the greatest blessing of my life & I will not do anything that could jeopardize our marriage (God forbid!!!). So if she would not approve of me not fasting, then fast I will and that is that.
 
I know that I've said before that as long as I am bound by the o'dox Jewish code (as it were) I must act according to it. But it isn't easy because my heart is elsewhere. Last Friday evening, as we sang the Lecha Dodi hymn welcoming in the Sabbath and we turned around to face the door at the end, I turned quickly and faced Mt. Gerizim for a second. As we say the "modim derabanan" prayer during the reader's repetition of the "Amidah" (see here) and we ask God to, "gather our exiles to Your holy courts to keep Your laws and do Your will," I add (after "Your holy courts"), "on Your holy mountain, Mt. Gerizim".
 
Reading the Israelite Samaritan version of the Torah every Saturday is a continuing wonder & fascination. I look out for the differences between the Israelite Samaritan version & ours and as they say God is in the details. Ferinstance, our version of Genesis 2:2 says:

And on the seventh day G-d finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
 

The Israelite Samaritan version says:

And on the sixth day G-d finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 

Capisce? I think the Israelite Samaritan version makes sense. To say that God "finished His work" on the 7th day implies that He worked on the 7th day. Given that imitatio Dei is important for us and we are commanded to rest on the 7th day because that's what God did, then it makes sense (methinks) that the Israelite Samaritan version makes more theological sense.

I told my wife yesterday as we were on our way to work that after the boys go back to school, I would like to take a day off work and go to Mt. Gerizim (for the first time in over a year) for a day. I need to be there. I think that if I can be there for just a few hours (to read the Torah & commune with God), that I'll feel better. Maybe I can make a once-a-year "pilgrimage" to recharge my spiritual batteries and so that I, the timid, may be well assured that such a place is my refuge, for it is the house of God, the protector, who saves the one taking refuge in Him and seeking Him by faith, in that place. I need to seek God by faith in that place, physically, so that I can keep it in my heart for another year. I need to run my hands over the flat rock of Givot Olam again.

nb

Pesah, brit mila & Shavuot

In yesterday's parsha (Beha'alotecha, Numbers 8:1-12:16), we read about Pesah Sheni (Numbers 9:1-14). (Based on Joshua 5:2-9, which says that there was no brit mila during the 38 years we were gallivanting around in the wilderness,) O'dox Judaism holds that this was the only Pesah celebrated in the wilderness, until the Pesah mentioned in Joshua 5-10-11. Even before my fascination with the Israelite Samaritans, I always thought that it was kind of weird that God would command us these two supremely important mitzvot (the only two positive mitzvot that carry the penalty of karet) and then prevent us from doing them for 38 years, during such a formative period of our national existence. I don't see where it's written regarding  brit mila and Pesah that it's Divinely mandated not to do them in the wilderness. Something doesn't jibe here.

I read in Samaritan Exegesis that Cohen Gadol Jacob son of Aaron writes:

The children of Israel fulfilled all the ordinances which they were commanded in the Torah, among them the Passover ordinance, for it is one of the greatest ordinances. Our fathers used to perform it according to the rules and regulations, and ate with it unleavened bread and bitter herbs throughout the forty years. Our opponents claim that our fathers ceased from celebrating the Passover during the period of forty years which they spent in the wilderness. Against this statement I appeal to God! How could they attend to this ordinance while they were in Egypt, surrounded by the most oppressive conditions, and then neglect it when they entered the wilderness with perfect liberty, and while Moses (upon whom be peace) was with them? How could they cease from performing an ordinance which was given to them as long as the world lasts, being at the time in a place where no one would oppose them...

 

...Those who claim that those who entered into the wilderness  or were born during the forty years were not circumcised make a terrible mistake.  What prohibited them from doing so, for they were commanded with this ordinance  from the times of our lord Abraham (upon whom be peace). They understood how absolute and definite are the punishments of those who do not perform it. Passages to that effect are numerous, for whosoever is born among the Israelites, and is not circumcised on the eigth day, is not counted with thje people, and that soul is destroyed from the number of the people. What our opponents claim in this matter is unacceptable and irrational, and so much is enough in this brief treatise.
 

Unacceptable and irrational, indeed. Needless to say that my bringing this up at seudah shlishit yesterday in shul did not impress anybody (all six of us). Once again, to accept the premise of no Pesah & no brit milah in the wilderness, one must needs fall back on the o'dox idea of oral Torah, or Torah Sheba'al Peh, which can be made to mean whatever we want it to mean even if this contravenes reason, logic and/or the plain sense of the written text.

Shavuot, o'dox Jewish Shavuot, was last week, although I can't help but think that the real Shavuot is today. Sigh

I know that I've said, both to myself and in one of my previous posts here somewhere, that as long as I'm bound by this particular code, i.e. o'dox Judaism, I must act according to it. But I really am just going through the motions. I know how I must act, my body knows what it has to do, but my mind & heart are drawn to Mt. Gerizim. Sigh (again) May God forgive me.

Grace Slick

I love Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" (click here, from 3:32). The opening lines are

When the truth is found to be lies and all the joy within you dies...

I don't know if I'm prepared to say that the o'dox Jewish truths I have lived by for the past 30 years or so are outright lies per se, but the joy that they used to give me, the joy I used to feel in living as an orthodox Jew has certainly atrophied if not completely died. I find that the Israelite Samaritan truths appeal to me far more (at the moment?).

I keep telling myself that as long as I'm bound by the o'dox Jewish code as it were I must uphold it. But sometimes it's a struggle.

I counted 27 for the Omer tonight but can't help but feel that it's really 23.

 

Rewritten Poem & textual comparisons

I've rewritten one of my poems from Intro Post, Part Four:

Once the fence inspired awe
now I run atop the posts.
I could very well fall
but at least I'm alive.
I can tell because the fencetop pricks my feet.

Others see green grass
but I see weeds;
hallowed ground for them,
hollow ground for me
where my feet grow heavy on the old familiar paths.

(I had seder in the House of Rimmon
awash in bitter herbs
where hopes are stillborn
and dwindle into fantasies,
that four cups couldn't drown, but not for want of trying.)

I know the world is hollow
but I fear to touch the sky
lest it shatter
and my family be caught in the wreckage.
So on I run, trying to keep my balance, but at least my feet hurt.
 
Better, I think.
 
I am immensely enjoying reading The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah, parsha (ours) by parsha, and am learning alot (which is why I bought it). Some of the differences appear to be fairly inconsequential (reversed word orders & such) while others are more substantive. Examples of the latter are in Leviticus 17:7 and 18:18. Our English of 17:7 reads:

And they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices unto the satyrs, after whom they go astray.
 

The Israelite Samaritan version reads the first underlined portion as in the gates. Our version of the original Hebrew is l'se'irim; theirs is b'shaa'rim (adjusting the Israelite Samaritan pronunciation to ours). The second underlined portion is zonim in both versions. The z-n-h root is also the root for the word for prostitute/whore, zonah. The Israelite Samaritan read is that we must not offer sacrifices as we were formerly wont to do in profane places such as town gates where prostitutes and whores might gather to trawl for customers.

In 18:18, the read is the same but the interpretation differs.

And you shall not take a woman to her sister, to be a rival to her, to uncover her nakedness, beside the other in her lifetime
 

We take to her sister in its literal sense & rule that a man may not marry two biological sisters. The Israelite Samaritans read it more metaphorically and take to her sister to mean any other Israelite woman, i.e. a sister in faith & rule that a man may not take a second wife at all (unless the first wife is barren and unless she agrees).

I have finished the second section of Samaritan Exegesis, by High Priest Jacob son of Aaron (whom the Wikipedia article on Samaritan High Priests lists as having served from 1874-1916), in which he answers 25 questions that were put to him. Those regarding the Passover were utterly fascinating.

In a latter section, the High Priest writes:

Every word of God as given in the revealed Torah through our lord Moses (upon whom be peace) possesses several allusions which are to be applied in their proper places. This is enough for the man who lays aside his prejudice, and is willing to receive guidance and act piously.

What an elegant refutation of the calumny that the Israelite Samaritans are slaves as it were to the narrow, literal meaning of the Torah. The key phrase above, I think, is in their proper places. Our Sages take such flights (of fancy?) away from the plain sense of the text (see Intro Post, Part Four, the paragraph near the bottom beginning "This past Roah Hashanah...") whereas the Israelite Samaritans take things in their proper places.

nb

Counting at Rimmon's Table

I decided that since I have to count with our youngest son I will do a barebones count, i.e. the blessing & the erroneous count and none of the afterprayers that are customarily said after counting; I just can't do it.

The Israelite Samaritans will be bringing the Pesach offering on Mt. Gerizim in a few hours. I think I said in a previous post that I will be glad that I'm not there. To see the Israelite Samaritans doing God's work and to know that all I will ever likely be is a spectator would be heartbreaking. So instead I'll drink my four cups of wine at Rimmon's table tomorrow night (maybe I'll drink a fifth or sixth cup) and wish I could be elsewhere. Whee.

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More on counting, Passover & not pointing fingers

Something that I hadn't thought of when I wrote my previous post is that my wife might want me to count the omer with our youngest son as she has in previous years. He's now past bar mitzvah so we'll have to see. I suppose I have to set a Jewish example for him but I wonder what values will I be teaching him exactly? Hypocrisy? Doing things just for the sake of appearances? Wheee. How responsible. What fun. (Not.)

It always freaks me out, this year more than in previous years, how so many o'dox Jews get so neurotic when it comes to Passover. Passover is when the obsessive-compulsives among us come out of the woodwork. There are people who weigh and measure out individual portions of matzah and maror so that everyone eats the exact right precise amount. God forbid that you should eat one gram less! Gevalt!! The seder is not supposed to be a mathematics lesson! Just eat some matza; if you eat under the exact, measured, quantifiable amount, it doesn't make any difference! I go nuts over long hair-splitting debates over what exactly constitutes leaning to the left. What if you're more comfortable leaning to the right/?!! It doesn't make any difference! Just sit and be relaxed & comfortable!  And, of course, our sedarim go on forever (even though the Torah says that the Passover offering is to be eaten in haste, but the Oral Torah explains that away too).

This past Shabbat I (quite spur of the moment) decided to stop pointing at the Torah when it is held up after the reading and saying, "This is the Torah that Moses placed before the Children of Israel according to God, by the hand of Moses" (which is cobbled together from Deuteronomy 4:44 & Numbers 4:37) as I do not believe anymore that the Torah which we Jews have is indeed, "the Torah that Moses placed before the Children of Israel according to God."

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On authority and counting

I read about yet another case in which a recalcitrant (allegedly) o'dox Jewish husband is refusing to give his wife a get & is blackmailing her for alot of money. (See here & here; these are from The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angles; the second article has a link to a New York Times piece about the same case.)

Ugh. The whole thing is stomach turning. The NYT story quotes Rabbi Jeremy Stern from the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot as saying:

“The rabbinical court system is such an ad hoc system where any man is able to call himself a rabbi and any three rabbis are able to call themselves a court, so that even if it’s not accepted by anyone, he is able to hide behind this,”
 

Rabbi Stern has alluded to something that bugs the hell out of me about Judaism in general and o'dox/u-o'dox Judaism in particular, namely that we have no unified authority or spiritual leadership and the result (in divorce cases, in conversion, in kashrut, etc., etc.) is chaos in which many good people get hurt and many SOB's get away, in this case, with bigamy. Ugh, ugh and double ugh.

I will say again that one of the many things I admire about the Israelite Samaritans is that they have one spiritual authority that everyone accepts and the result is order, the kind that the Torah calls for, administered by the people whom the Torah calls to administer it (cohanim, i.e. Aaronic priests). I have to admire this. This is but one more instance in which we o'dox Jews have lost our way, lost the Torah's way, and could learn a thing or two from our Israelite Samaritan brothers.

Another issue, related to the upcoming Passover holyday. I do not want to count the Omer, at least not the way we Jews do. The controversy is well-known. Leviticus 23:15 says:

And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath [mimacharat haShabbat], from the day that you brought the sheaf of the waving; seven weeks shall there be complete;
 

We Jews claim that the underlined/Italicized section does not mean what it says and that Shabbat in this case means the first day of Passover, meaning that the second day of Passover is the first day of the Omer. The Israelite Samaritans claim (wonder of wonders) that the Torah here actually means what it says, meaning that the first day of the Omer is the day after the first Sabbath that falls during Passover. I have the read the Jewish arguments in favor of the Jewish (duh) view and quite honestly they seem like so much contrived sophistry designed to prove that the text means something other than what it says (i.e. God doesn't tell it to us straight but rather teases us). I accept the idea of oral traditions (the Israelite Samaritans have them) but I cannot accept the idea that oral traditions can either contradict or add to the concrete, written Torah, such as in the case of counting the Omer or the number of days that a menstruating woman is niddah. As I noted in a previous post, the Torah explicitly says it is seven days. Our sages added five more days; how is this not adding to the Torah?

Back to the Omer. The Israelite Samaritan view takes the text at face value. So...

I do not want to count the Omer. Putting on tefillin every morning doesn't bug me so much (doesn't bug me so much now/yet); it seems harmless enough. But counting the Omer the way we do it seems to contravene the plain meaning of a Torah verse. What do I do? My quandary raises another issue. Do I, as an o'dox Jew, simply fall back on the wiser-men-than-I-have-figured-this-out-and-I-should-act-accordingly thing? This, in turn, raises another issue. Do I put the brain and the heart that God gave me on auto-pilot and just do as I'm told? This seems like mindlessly falling in with the hivemind/herd mentality. Are we so many spiritual lemmings??!!

I do not want to count the Omer; whether I will remains to be seen. I don't know what to do (yet).

I pray that God gives me guidance!

 

A refuge for the timid

Well, the books (Samaritan Exegesis and The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah) have finally arrived! Thank God, at last!

I have read the forewords & introductions to the second book. I think I am going to read the Torah portions that match our weekly readings, to study how they compare and to note the differences.

I have read the first part of Samaritan Exegesis ("Mount Gerizim: The One True Sanctuary" by High Priest Amram Isaac and am about half-way through the second part ("The Book of Enlightenment: For the Instruction of the Inquirer" by High Priest Jacob son of Aaron).

High Priest Amram Isaac writes about Mt. Gerizim:

In the account (to which reference has been made) Jacob (upon whom be peace) is commanded to erect another altar on it, in order that the timid may be well assured that such a place is his refuge, for it is the house of God, the protector, (may He be exalted) who saves the one taking refuge in Him and seeking Him by faith, in this place.
 

I read this and tears welled up in my eyes. I am timid and the words of High Priest Amram Isaac reassure me. However imperfectly at this time, I take refuge in God and seek Him by faith (however imperfect, may He forgive me) in His place which is Mt. Gerizim. I must go back there and take my books and read and meditate there.

Now, more than ever, I feel that when I go to synagogue I am bowing in the House of Rimmon.

I've got to run. I will write more later.

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Those professional holy men

As I noted in a previous post, the Israelite Samaritans do not have professional holy men, i.e. all of their cohanim work and the young men of the (Holon) community serve in the IDF.

Unfortunately, sadly, apropos yesterday's demonstration in Jerusalem, this is not the case with us. It must be a gross distortion of Torah that so many healthy Jews use their Torah study as crowns to aggrandize themselves & as spades to dig with (see 4:7). Our eldest son (11th grade) is now going through the preliminaries vis-a-vis his eventual induction into the IDF for what should be at least 3 years of compulsory service. I served in the IDF reserves for 11 years (during which time I was in Lebanon, on the Egyptian border & in the Jordan Valley). How is it that our son and thousands of his peers should be the hewers of wood & drawers of water (to use a Biblical metaphor) for thousands of other(wise healthy) Jews who use (desecrate!) their Torah study to claim privilege for themselves??!! How is it that, when our son is inducted, my wife & I will have to live with the existential dread that the next knock on the door could be two officers from the Adjutancy Corps when other parents can rest assured that their children are safe & sound, far from harm's way, in some u-o'dox yeshiva? (Ditto for my wife/u-o'dox wives back when I was still doing annual reserve duty.)

Defending the Land of Israel and the people who live therein is holy work! The difference between the young man or woman in the IDF and the comfortable u-o'dox yeshiva student is that while the former are living up to the courage of their convictions (and may, God forbid, pay the ultimate sacrifice), the latter's convictions require no courage (and very little, if any, sacrifice).

No, I turn my back on the mentality that sees Torah-learning as the foundation of an aristocracy that claims privilege for itself (they're doing it for us, you see, and we should be grateful!) and deems itself worthy of material support from others' pockets. Quoth Abraham Lincoln's second innaugural address:

It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces
 

Torah is life, life in this world, not apart from it in some cloistered study hall or in a privileged corner of it, but everywhere, even (especially!) in IDF service.

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More on Temples and Tabernacles

In a previous post, I wrote:
 

So, we went to the Western Wall a few weeks ago for a friend's son's bar mitzvah and I felt like it was just another place. I contrasted the grandiosity of the Temples that stood there, huge monumental buildings, with the simplicity of a tent (i.e. the Mishkan, according to the Samaritans) stretched over the bare rock of Givat Olam. (Quoth Thoreau: "Our lives are frittered away by detail; simplify, simplify, simplify.") For me at least, the latter is a much bigger draw; I find the former off-putting. (Who needs the big, grandiose, colossal buildings? God or our us?)

 A few Shabbatot (Sabbaths) ago, we (Jews) read Exodus 25:1-27:19 in synagogue, including Exodus 25:8-9:

And let them make Me a sanctuary (mikdash), that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show you, the pattern of the tabernacle (mishkan), and the pattern of all the furniture thereof, even so shall you make it.
 

O'dox Judaism views these verses as the mitzvah to build the Tabernacle and its successor, the Temple[s]. Linguistically, mikdash is a general word here, while mishkan is the more specific term; I think this flows from the plain reading of the text. God's subsequent, very specific & detailed, instructions (Exodus 25:10-27:19) are about the Tabernacle (mishkan) only! Where does it say anything about building a (huge, grandiose & imposing) Temple? Ah, that's our O'dox interpretation based on our concept of the Oral Torah, Torah Sh'ba'al peh, which, I've come/am coming/ to the conclusion, can be made to say just about anything but which in this case (as in many others) assumes facts not in (the written) evidence.

I go back to the simplicity of a tent (i.e. the Tabernacle/Mishkan) stetched over the bare rock of Givat Olam. Worship God on this mountain!

Back to the House of Rimmon.

Sigh

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Mascara from Hell

I saw this (Satmar Rebbe Blames Cancer on Make-Up) in the Forward the other day. I don't know what's worse, that someone with enough Torah-learning to have acquired the title 'Rabbi" can actually spout such primitive rubbish or that the sheep who follow him actually believe it. Are they the same religion as me? In Deuteronomy 4:6, God bids us adhere to the Torah & its precepts, "for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, that, when they hear all these statutes, shall say: 'Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.'" Only when people see that the Satmar Rebbe blames cancer on cosmetics, they'll say 'Surely this nation is a bunch of fu--ing idiots." I love it (not) when the Torah is made into a thing to be mocked and jeered at. What a terrible desecration of God's Name! Like the Talmud says (Berachot 19b, to be precise), "Wherever the Name [God's] is desecrated, one does not honor the rabbi."

Aside #1: Having proudly served for 11 years in the IDF reserves and being the proud father of a 17-year-old who is in the process of registering for his eventual conscription into the IDF, I have zero sympathy for the Satmars' virulent anti-Zionism and xenophobia toward just about anyone who is not like them or pretty close to being like them. Too many centuries in exile, in the Diaspora, away from the Land of Israel our mother, physically and conceptually, has warped their view of Torah, as it has nearly all o'dox Jews, them worst of all.

Aside #2: The little (110 gram) container of local cottage cheese I had with my fresh fruit & veggy lunch has three kashrut certifications on it!

And o'dox Jews thing the Israelite Samaritans are weird??!!

The books that I ordered are still at my parents' house in the US. Mom is not doing so well & Dad hasn't gotten around to mailing them off. At least I know where they are & that they're not lost in the mail in transit somewhere.

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Good for Gital and what our rabbis do (or do not)

I see in today's New York Post that Gital Dodelson's now ex-husband finally gave her a get. That's another area in which I think we (o'dox) Jews have lost our way. That a recalcitrant husband can condemn his [ex-]wife to vitual slavery by witholding a get is male bovine excrement. A friend of mine, who is much more learned than I am, tells me that back in early Mishnaic times a beit din could, if the husband or wife was being recalcitrant, declare the marriage dissolved. As my Israelite Samaritan friends would say, where in the Torah is it written that a husband can extort a divorce from his wife? With them, while any cohen can officiate a wedding, only the Cohen Gadol can issue a divorce.

On another note, all of their cohanim (remember, the Israelite Samaritans never developed a lay rabbinate, their cohanim are their spiritual leaders and their spiritual leaders are their cohanim) work, even the Cohen Gadol. The previous Cohen Gadol, who passed away a few days before the Passover offering last year, was a nurse. I believe the present CG is a businessman. The CHship with them always passes to the eldest cohein who is capable of performing the office, so politicking (I should say, nauseating politicking of the kind that surrounded the recent elections of our 2 current chief rabbis) is basically nil.

I am waiting for the books I ordered to arrive. I hope that they haven't been lost somewhere between my parents' house in the US and here.

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Esau, the Second Son & Vashti

Esau gets a bum rap. Boy-oh-boy, do Chazal just love to pick on him! I heard an interesting dvar Torah once in which the speaker said that the Tanakh's two posterchildren for ADD/ADHD are Esau and David (who happen to be the only two personalities explicitly referred to as having ruddy complexions/being redheads). Esau, the man of the field (as opposed to his twin brother Jacob, the quiet man who dwelt in tents), is all restless action. The story of him, the lentil pottage & selling his birthright is very telling, ADD/ADHD-wise. Esau says, "'Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall the birthright do to me?'" He was not about to die. Exaggeration & the use of superlatives in speech is characteristic of ADD/ADHD. Esau shows no regard for the future & is focused solely on gratifying his (exaggerated) need of the moment. Genesis 25:34 ("and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright") loses something in the translation. In Hebrew, the five verbs here immediately follow eachother ("...vayachal, vayesht, vayakom, vayalech vayabez..."). Esau ate and drank until he was satiated, then rose and left. He was all verbs. It hit me a while back that his threat to kill Jacob (two chapters later) may have been/probably was his ADD/ADHD-typical florid speech, which he did not mean literally, but which Rebecca took literally, with all the fateful consequences. Our Sages, in the midrashic literature, love to come down on and demonize Esau. I wonder if the obvious rabbinical animus toward Esau is no more than the inability of our Sages, who were themselves quiet men who dwelled in tents, to understand this "man of the field." And what one cannot understand, one dumps on, of course. Which leads me to...

Chazal also love to beat up on the Second Son at the Seder, the so-called "Wicked Son". I'm more convinced than ever that he also gets a bad (and undeserved) rap, that the author of the Hagadah mapil alav tik (is framing him) as the Hebrew slang goes. I do not think that based on his question one can conclude with any degree of certainty that he is excluding himself from the whole. To do so, I think, is to assume facts not in evidence, and reflects more onn the baggage of the one doing the accusing. He asks a personal, intimate and out-of-the-box question that riles some people, the author of the Hagadah for one, who utterly misunderstand him and, of course, what one does not understand...(see above)

So, with any further ado...
_____

This is what you hurl at me?
I am not satisfied.
You neither understand nor see
and presume to be my guide?

Perchance I do not fit your mold
But that does not wicked make.
Nor does it cast me from the fold
My faith Hashem will take.

Set my teeth on edge you would?
Your stock phrases have no bite.
Complacent and untried you've stood
too long; will it end tonight?

I know what's on the pages
Please don't read it back
And neither quote the Sages
Take a different tack.

"What mean you by this service?"
My intention do not skew!
(Or do I make you nervous?)
The one excluded might be you.

Hamster-like, do you run the wheel
because it's all you know to do?
Tell me what you love and feel;
what does the service mean to you?

Which leads me to...
 
To complete the dumped-on trilogy, we've got Vashti, the malicious, evil bitch according to Artscroll, Aish Hatorah (at least their website), etc. I should add: Vashti, the monochrome, made-out-of-cardboard, malicious, evil bitch. (It always gets me about how certain folk, usually of the more orthodox/haredi bent, see the Tanakh as an adult version of a first grade reader, i.e. with everything and everyone simple & simplistic, and with shallow, uncomplex characters, who are more caricature than character. The Tanakh is the Book of Life & real life just isn't like that.) So...

Dance naked before a rabble of drunks

I said "Get lost!" the lousy skunks!

My "tail" was fine, that's what they wanted to see

I wouldn't be his toy, I wanted to be me.

 

What you see with me is what you get

I am an equal, not a pet

Daughter of kings, I won't be shut

Within the palace, that gilded hut.

But for some that's not cool

So they made me a freak, they made me a ghoul

With tzara'at, green skin, warts and a tail.

I want to scream, I want to wail!

Esther's their queen: Passive, demure

Manipulative, that's for sure.

She led Achash' with bit and bridle,

herself the perfect matinee idol.

They called me brazen, but that's absurd,

just because I won't follow the herd;

The scorned sister of the misunderstood son,

Why deal with a challenge you'd rather shun?

 

Do not consign me to the fringe

In your nice pat world, let me impinge

My heart is open to the One who sees,

I am Vashti; hear me please.

I think it's also characteristic of midrash that Chazal have to knock the "bad guys" (Esau, the Second Son, Vashti) in order to note the contrast with the "good guys" (Jacob, the Wise Son & Esther). This, of course, aside from being grossly unfair to the "bad guys" does no justice to the "good guys."

 

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II. Alphabet Soup

(...)

One can easily see that the Israelite Samaritans use a different script which is alot closer to the ancient Hebrew script, the so-called ktav Ivri. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 21b) records no less than three opinions on how the alphabet in which the Torah was originally written (they disagree on that too) was changed. This is a longer, more detailed article; this is a short-and-sweet bare bones summary. Who or what gave Ezra, or some other Sage, the right to change the alphabet?

So, I've come to the conclusion that the script of our version of the Torah is plenty suspect.

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I. Text Twist (not)

One of o'doxy's sacred cows that I've had to shecht over the past year or so is that "that the entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses" (to quote item #8 from Maimonides' 13 principles).

Both we and the Israelite Samaritans claim that the other's version of the Torah is suspect and unreliable. I have discovered our notion of tikunei sofrim and done some research.

Look at the Rashi on Genesis 18:22.

What is a "scribal emendation" or, to use the Hebrew (singular), a tikun soferim?

Read here & here. 

Just like our Sages played fast and loose with calendar (fixing it so that, ferinstance, Yom Kippur will not fall on a Friday or Sunday; for the SIsraelite amaritans, if Yom Kippur falls on a Friday or Sunday, that's that and they deal with it), they have also, apparently, played fast and loose with the text of the Torah itself both in regard to "scribal emendations" and to the alphabet itself.

(...)

Leah Vincent et. al.

I've read the New York Post and Unpious.com articles on Leah Vincent & her new book. Her story is both fascinating (in & of itself) and stomach-churning (that her parents could chuck her out because she corresponded with a boy & bought a clingy sweater for crying out loud). These people (her parents) and I share the same religion??!! Shame on them! Ugh. What a pity that some people have chosen "casting out of" instead of "reaching out to." I think it sad (very) and telling (also very) that in the Yeshivish world frei (free in Yiddish) means someone who has become unreligious, i.e. gone off the path.

I deplore both the hivemind/herd mentality and the tendency of some orthodox & ultra-orthodox Jews to circle the wagons and cry "Ultra-orthodox bashing!" at any and all criticism of any aspect of orthodox & ultra-orthodox life, as if our faith teaches that anyone or anything is infallible and immune to criticism. (This is not say that ultra-orthdox bashing doesn't exist of course. After 25+ years here in Israel I've come across all sorts of secular bigots who will gleefully bash and jeer at the ultra-orthodox.) You saw this in the reaction to the New York Post's initial coverage of the Stark murder as well. By the way, I thought that these articles (here & here)  in the Forward were the best I've seen on the stark murder.

What bugs me though about o'dox and u-o'dox lowlifes (as opposed to secular lowlifes) is that you would think that the bits of cloth we cover our heads with would mean something, that all this stuff in the Torah about morality & ethics and treating our fellow human beings (not just fellow Jews; I was at a Shabbat table last Friday when somone brought up the you're-not-really-required-to-break-Shabbat-to-help-a-goy-in-danger-but-we-do-it-anyway thing, I wanted to throw soup at him) would sink in just a little. There's a(n otherwise absent) terrible chilul Hashem aspect when it's an ostensibly (!) o'dox/u-o'dox person caught doing something nefarious.

On the immune-to-criticism thing, I find it disturbing that in many o'dox and u-o'dox circles criticism of "gedolim" is considered a huge no-no (#3, for example). I remember listening to the radio in the car on the way home the day Rav Ovadia Yosef (z"l) passed away. Someone criticized something he had said (he said lots of outrageous stuff) and the program host shut this person down right away and said, "You can't criticize the Maran." Why the hell not? Avraham Avinu questioned God Himself yet we cannot question other human beings? Sez who?

Good night!

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More ramblings

I read the first chapter of Rav Norman Lamm's book "Faith and Doubt." In it he writes:

 

...A doubt is spurious if it does not issue from a quest for truth. A genuine doubt must be a question that arises from a quest, not a specious excuse that spares the doubter the need to commit himself. It must be critical not only of the object of its concerns, but of itself as well, lest it be no more than an irresponsible evasion of the need to take a stand...

 
...The emet which cognitive emunah affirms is not given to us for the price of mere assent; it is the prize for which we must engage in a fierce intellectual struggle. Doubt, so conceived, becomes not an impediment, but a goad to reinvestigate and deepen cognitive faith assertions. Out of the agony of a faith which must constantly wrestle with doubt may emerge an emunah of far greater vision, scope, and attainment...This is, of course, a dangerous and risky kind of faith. But, as someone so rightly said, you cannot open your mind to truth without risking the entrance of falsehood; and you cannot close your mind to falsehood without risking the exclusion of truth. The only way to avoid cognitive doubt is to ignore it; worse yet, to abandon the enterprise of cognition, or daat Hashem. The path to the knowledge of God is strewn with the rocks and boulders of doubt; he who would despair of the journey because of the fear of doubt, must resign himself forever from attaining the greatest prize known to man...

I think about this alot.

 There is a whole (short) masekhet about the Israelite Samaritans: Masekhet Kutim (the whole text in English) that sums up much of what the Mishna has to say about them. Chazal call them Kutim, based on II Kings 17:24. By calling them Kutim, Chazal are saying that they're from Cuthah & thus not from Samaria. The Samaritans, of course, dispute II Kings 17:24-41.

Testy relations between Jews & Israelite Samaitans dates as far back (at least) as the New Testament. The Gospel of John records some Jews insulting Jesus by calling him a devil and a Samaritan.

 

Bereshit Rabbah & Yalkut Shimoni record a very snippy exchange between Rabbi Yishmael and a certain Israelite Samaritan. Rabbi Yishmael was passing Mt. Gerizim on his way to pray in Jerusalem. The Israelite Samaritan asked him if it wouldn't be better to pray on Mt. Gerizim & not in "the cursed House". Rabbi Yishmael replied that the Samaritans are drawn to Mt. Gerizim because they know where Yaakov Avinu buried the idols (see Bereshit 35:4). What a nice (not) exchange of insults that does credit to neither group!

 

The Mishna (Rosh Hashanah, Chapter 2) tells us that Chazal stopped the practice of lighting beacons on certain mountain tops as a way of announcing Rosh Chodesh because the Samaritans would put them out. But the Tosefta on Masekhet Ohalot (Chap. 18) says that Jews looted a market belonging to either idolaters or Samaritans, depending on the version.  

 

But in spite of the foregoing, Chazal, at least initially, could not make up their minds about them, were they Jews, non-Jews or something in-between?  

 

Chapter 2 of the Tosefta on Masekhet Avoda Zara says: "A Jew who rents his home to a Kuti has no fear that the latter will bring in idolatry."  

 

Chapter 6 of the Tosefta on Masekhet Mikvaot says: "The land of the Kutim is clean as are its mikvaot, houses and roads."  

 

The Gemara (Kiddushin, 4th Chapter, Daf ayin-vav) records the following exchange: "A baraita: The matzot of the Kutim is permitted and a man fulfills his obligation with it on Pesah. Rabbi Eliezer forbids it because they are not aware of the details of mitzvot. Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says: Any mitzva that the Kutim hold to, they are more exact (mdakdakim) on than the Jews..."  

 

The Mishna (Nidda, Chapter 4:1) says that Samaritan women are to be considered nidda from birth (because they hold that any issue which a woman may have before her first regular period doesn't count & doesn't render her nidda, whereas we hold the opposite). Tuma, tahara, nidda, etc. are concepts that do not apply to Gentiles. So if the Mishna is saying that Samaritan woman can be nidda, it's saying that they're Jews.  

 

Hullin 3 & 4 detail Abayye's opinion that Samaritan schehitah is valid under certain conditions. (On the other hand, the Mishna in Sheviit says that eating Samaritans' bread is like eating pork.)  

 

But, as I said, attitudes toward the Samaritans hardened. The Yerushalmi (Masekhet Avoda Zara, Chapter 5) has a rather poignant (I think) account in which a group of Samaritans came to Rav Abbahu and said, "Your fathers were satisfied with us (hayu mistapkin b'shelanu) and you, for some reason, are not satisfied with us. He said to them, "Your fathers did not corrupt their ways but you have corrupted your ways."  

 

Rav Abbahu ruled that the Samaritans were no longer as strict as they once were vis-a-vis kashrut and is also likely referring to the determination in Hulin 6 by Rav Nachman Ben Yitzhak that the Samaritans were worshipping an idol in the shape of a dove on Mt. Gerizim. Rambam picks up on Hulin 6 in his perush on the Mishna in Brachot and says that the Samartans are much worse than goyim. (Not surprisingly, a contemporary Samaritan scholar cursed the Rambam.)  

 

Given, as I said, that this reference in Hulin 6 is the only reference to the worshipping-an-idol-in-the-shape-of-a-dove thing in any extant Jewish and/or non-Jewish source and that the Israelite Samaritans deny this utterly & vehemently, I conclude that either Chazal were misinformed or that other issues were involved. What do I mean by "other issues"? Look at when the Israelite Samaritans were given the boot, in the late 3rd-early 4th centuries CE. By then all the other groups that had challenged the position of the rabbanim (the Sadducees, the Zealots, the Essenes, etc.) were gone...except for one. At that time the Israelite Samaritans were prospering, were well-organized and numbered over a million. So, says jaded cynical me, in order for the rabbanim to be the unchallenged kings of the mountain (as it were), the Israelite Samaritans had to be disparaged, declared non-Jews and given the boot.

 

After we had been up to observe the Israelite Samaritan Passover on April 23, as an experiment, I told one of our neighbors (a native Israeli) where we had been. Her astonished reaction was, "Aval hem kofrim!" ("But they're heretics!") I told this to my Holon Israelite Samaritan friend & he agreed with me that she has never actually met a real Israelite Samaritan in her life. If all we know about them is Rambam's remark that they're much worse than goyim (see below), then of course we'll be suspicious-to-hostile.

nb