Lessee here...
I intended to go to Aargareezem on Wednesday, September 9. But that was when this part of the Middle East was hit by a terrible dust/sand storm. The storm lasted several days but Wednesday the 9th was the worst. My wife suffers from asthma & even though I had taken the day off work, I had to stay home & help take care of her. I imagine that visibility on the Mountain was not very good that day.
My Israelite Samaritan friend had brought this collection of IS daily (and other) prayers, transcribed into modern Hebrew, to my attention. I printed out the 30-page collection (including cover & appendices) & actually read it in synagogue on both days of our Rosh Hashanah holiday & on our Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Hatorah holiday. This was the high point of my holidays. Nobody noticed (good).
During our Sukkot holiday I saw an article in an Americn rabbinic journal in which it was pointed out that 3 of our so-called halachot l'Moshe miSinai (see
https://www.ou.org/torah/
In the above regard, I recall posts between my IS friend & I from last October. I wrote:
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"Your citation of Nehemiah 8:14-15 is very interesting. The plain sense of the text is that the items mentioned are for use in building the sukkah, not for any "Four Species." The Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 36b-37a) discusses this very issue & these very verses. Rabbi Yehudah (bar Ilai' 2nd century CE) says that the items mentioned in Leviticus 23:40 are indeed for building one's sukkah with and cites Nehemiah 8:14-15 in support of his opinion. His view is rejected, of course, on the presumed grounds that Leviticus 23:40 refers to four specific, exact species, not broader categories as you have mentioned above ("any nice fruit" and "branches from any green tree"), and that if one couldn't find any of them in a given year one would be unable to build a sukkah that year.
Ezra 8 makes it clear that the Jews who returned from Babylonia knew *nothing* about the Torah. They probably looked north, saw Israelite Samaritans building sukkot like the one pictured above and thought "Hmm..." Ezra & Nehemiah would have done their best to stamp out this view but it must have persisted at least until Rabbi Yehudah bar ilai's time many centuries later."
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He replied:
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"Dear Sabi,
thank you so much for your encouraging comment. Your suggestion that the returners from the exile did what they saw in the North very interesting and logic."
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About three weeks ago, I dreamed that my IS friend was introducing me to the (Israelite Samaritan) High Priest. I told the HP that my IS friend was very patient with all my questions, and that I was profoundly grateful for his English IS Torah and that it was the only printed Torah in book form that I read anymore.
I am going to the US next week (for 2.5 weeks) to see my parents, brother & some good friends. I very much wanted to go to Aargareezem before I went. This past Wednesday, Oct. 7, was the day. The boys were in school & the army, respectively. They have no idea of the depth of my fascination with the ISs & I would like to keep it that way. My wife wasn't entirely thrilled but being an extraordinarily patient woman, she did not ask me not to go. I emailed my IS friend & he said that he would be in his apartment in Kiryat Luza. I had a thoroughly uneventul drive there (good). I drove up to the National Park on the summit first. To my chagrin, there was a handwritten sign on the gate explaining that for "technical reasons" the site was closed. Major frump.
(It's now late Monday night & I'm sitting here at the airport waiting to board my flight.) So I went to my IS friend's apartment; I hink he's more or less always there on Wednesdays. I told him about the sign. I know that he knows all the Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel there and that ISs may enter the site free, pretty much whenever they like. He made a few calls and informed me that they were doing major maintenance work on the electricity, water, etc. and that closed meant closed. Before I could double major frump, he told me that we would do something that, to me, was just as good as going up to the holy sites. He told me that we would go meet the High Priest, the High Priest. I had emailed my friend and told him -- inter alia -- about my dream but I was still kinda floored. My friend & I talked for a while. I told him that it was disturbing to see that the little compound where the ISs offered the Passover lambs was unkept & had so much litter, including in the 6 pits.
(After I had come down from the closed park & while I was waiting for him, I had walked around the compound. I prayed that one day I might be privileged enough to be here not as a spectator or an occasional visitor, but as a member of the IS community taking part in the holy rite there. The iron grate over the shallower pit where the ISs burned the parts of the lambs that must be offered to God had burnt residue on it. I dabbed ome on my finger & smeared it on the inside back cover of my copy of the English translation of the IS version of the Torah. One day!)
I told my IS friend hat I had downloaded the aforesaid IS prayers and that I had read them in our synagogue on each day of our Rosh Hashanah & on our Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah and how this had made my holidays.My friend said that he admired me for my devotion and said that I must keep the questions coming.
He had two other visitors: A Palestinian journalist from nearby Nablus & a Palestinian doctoral candidate from Columbia University in NYC. The latter was writing her dissertation on some aspect international law and was interested in the legal staus of he IS community. He introduced me as an orthodox Jew who was very drawn to the IS (version of our) faith. My IS friend and his two other guests spoke at some length in Arabic; I just sat there & occasionally smiled. At one point my friend thanked me for my patience and said that we would go see the High Priest soon. I replied that Ihad been waiting to meet the High Priest for 52 years (I'm 52) and that I could wait a little longer. He laughed.
At one point my IS friend took a call on his cellphone and then told us that we would go see High Priest Aabed-El ben High Priest Aasher ben High Priest Matzliach now. We went to see the High Priest in his home, which was right next to the Passover compound. We sat on couches in a room just off the entrance. It seemed too small to be a living room; my guess is that it was his room for receiving visitors. His wife (?) brought out (very smooth) Turkish coffee in little china cups on a matching tray. When the High Priest came in, I stood up and then sat down when he did. He wore a red kind of fez/turban and a brown kind of suit. He first spoke in Arabic with the two Palestinians. Then my IS friend spoke to him (also in Arabic) about me. I got the distinct impression that that this was not the first time he was hearing about me, that my IS friend had mentioned me to him before. My IS friend asked me what I would like to say to the High Priest. I told him what I had said in my dream, that I was very grateful to my friend for patiently answering all my questions and for his translation of the Torah, and added that it was the only chumash (printed Torah in book form) that I now read. I said that I would like to come to Aargaareezem more often but that my wife would not approve. The High Priest (through my IS friend) said that my family was of utmost importance and that I must face Aargaareezem when I pray (I told him that in our synagogue I can do that without arousing any suspicion since the synagogue faces that direction anyway). He said that devotion to God, in any form, was important. My IS friend beckoned me to sit next to the High Priest and receive his blessing. He put his hands together, held them as close to my head as he could without touching it and moved them back-and-forth while he pronounced what I think was the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24. I was very moved and concentrated as hard I could. When he was finished, we all took our leave. My IS friend helped me buy some of the very good tehina/tahini they make up there; I wanted to take it to the US. I drove back home.
Practically, what did I get out of my visit? When I pray now, I substitute "Aargareezem" for Jerusalem, and Shema and Eloweem for A-donai and Elokim, in all my prayers. I face Aargareezem unless doing so might attract unwanted attention. But whether I face Aargareezem or Jerusalem, it is Aargareezem that is in my heart.
Morally, ethically, High Priest Aabed-El has blessed me. I must now show myself worthy of his blessing by trying to be a better person in some way[s], by improving my character, and by working on my less-than-desirable traits.
So, what does Solsbury Hill have to do with it? (Try this version, with lyrics.) This song makes me think about how I have come to be interested in the Israelite Samaritan version of our faith & have become so strongly attracted to it and to Aargareezem, and how I must keep this secret. Gabriel sings:
And liberty she pirouette
(It's now late Monday night & I'm sitting here at the airport waiting to board my flight.) So I went to my IS friend's apartment; I hink he's more or less always there on Wednesdays. I told him about the sign. I know that he knows all the Israel Nature and Parks Authority personnel there and that ISs may enter the site free, pretty much whenever they like. He made a few calls and informed me that they were doing major maintenance work on the electricity, water, etc. and that closed meant closed. Before I could double major frump, he told me that we would do something that, to me, was just as good as going up to the holy sites. He told me that we would go meet the High Priest, the High Priest. I had emailed my friend and told him -- inter alia -- about my dream but I was still kinda floored. My friend & I talked for a while. I told him that it was disturbing to see that the little compound where the ISs offered the Passover lambs was unkept & had so much litter, including in the 6 pits.
(After I had come down from the closed park & while I was waiting for him, I had walked around the compound. I prayed that one day I might be privileged enough to be here not as a spectator or an occasional visitor, but as a member of the IS community taking part in the holy rite there. The iron grate over the shallower pit where the ISs burned the parts of the lambs that must be offered to God had burnt residue on it. I dabbed ome on my finger & smeared it on the inside back cover of my copy of the English translation of the IS version of the Torah. One day!)
I told my IS friend hat I had downloaded the aforesaid IS prayers and that I had read them in our synagogue on each day of our Rosh Hashanah & on our Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah and how this had made my holidays.My friend said that he admired me for my devotion and said that I must keep the questions coming.
He had two other visitors: A Palestinian journalist from nearby Nablus & a Palestinian doctoral candidate from Columbia University in NYC. The latter was writing her dissertation on some aspect international law and was interested in the legal staus of he IS community. He introduced me as an orthodox Jew who was very drawn to the IS (version of our) faith. My IS friend and his two other guests spoke at some length in Arabic; I just sat there & occasionally smiled. At one point my friend thanked me for my patience and said that we would go see the High Priest soon. I replied that Ihad been waiting to meet the High Priest for 52 years (I'm 52) and that I could wait a little longer. He laughed.
At one point my IS friend took a call on his cellphone and then told us that we would go see High Priest Aabed-El ben High Priest Aasher ben High Priest Matzliach now. We went to see the High Priest in his home, which was right next to the Passover compound. We sat on couches in a room just off the entrance. It seemed too small to be a living room; my guess is that it was his room for receiving visitors. His wife (?) brought out (very smooth) Turkish coffee in little china cups on a matching tray. When the High Priest came in, I stood up and then sat down when he did. He wore a red kind of fez/turban and a brown kind of suit. He first spoke in Arabic with the two Palestinians. Then my IS friend spoke to him (also in Arabic) about me. I got the distinct impression that that this was not the first time he was hearing about me, that my IS friend had mentioned me to him before. My IS friend asked me what I would like to say to the High Priest. I told him what I had said in my dream, that I was very grateful to my friend for patiently answering all my questions and for his translation of the Torah, and added that it was the only chumash (printed Torah in book form) that I now read. I said that I would like to come to Aargaareezem more often but that my wife would not approve. The High Priest (through my IS friend) said that my family was of utmost importance and that I must face Aargaareezem when I pray (I told him that in our synagogue I can do that without arousing any suspicion since the synagogue faces that direction anyway). He said that devotion to God, in any form, was important. My IS friend beckoned me to sit next to the High Priest and receive his blessing. He put his hands together, held them as close to my head as he could without touching it and moved them back-and-forth while he pronounced what I think was the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24. I was very moved and concentrated as hard I could. When he was finished, we all took our leave. My IS friend helped me buy some of the very good tehina/tahini they make up there; I wanted to take it to the US. I drove back home.
Practically, what did I get out of my visit? When I pray now, I substitute "Aargareezem" for Jerusalem, and Shema and Eloweem for A-donai and Elokim, in all my prayers. I face Aargareezem unless doing so might attract unwanted attention. But whether I face Aargareezem or Jerusalem, it is Aargareezem that is in my heart.
Morally, ethically, High Priest Aabed-El has blessed me. I must now show myself worthy of his blessing by trying to be a better person in some way[s], by improving my character, and by working on my less-than-desirable traits.
So, what does Solsbury Hill have to do with it? (Try this version, with lyrics.) This song makes me think about how I have come to be interested in the Israelite Samaritan version of our faith & have become so strongly attracted to it and to Aargareezem, and how I must keep this secret. Gabriel sings:
"To keeping silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut...
...When illusion spin her net
I'm never where I want to beAnd liberty she pirouette
When I think that I am free..."
Sigh
Aargaareezem, Bit El - Kal yaamee 'ayyeenoo!*
* Mt. Gerizim, the House of God - All the days of our life!
* Mt. Gerizim, the House of God - All the days of our life!
