Once Near Extinction, The Tribe Called Samaritans Lives On
a 6 April 2023 article
by Steven Fine
in The Washington Post
When my oldest son was in fourth grade, he was studying in a Talmud class preparing for the Jewish New Year. The teacher arrived at a passage that describes the nefarious Kutim, an ancient
expletive for Samaritans. The rabbi explained how these Kutim disrupted
communication of the date of the New Year from Jerusalem to surrounding communities some 2,000 years ago.
No “good Samaritans” here.
He told the boys that the Kutim were descendants of false converts who persist
in attacking “us.” Looking up, the teacher saw that my boy was upset.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Rabbi,” my
son replied, “my dad has a friend who is a Samaritan. Calling Samaritans
‘Kutim’ is like using the n-word.” The kindly teacher
had no answer. Soon after, he sought me out for more information.
So this Passover, meet the modern-day Samaritans. Though we speak
of good Samaritan laws that protect do-gooders and good Samaritan hospitals that heal us, in fact, this small religious group
has barely survived centuries of hate and mistrust in a region riven by conflict.
The fact that they were widely despised
in antiquity is a key element of the New Testament parable for which their name is known.
In the gospel story, a Jewish traveler has been robbed, beaten and left for dead.
A passing Jewish priest walked past the suffering man without stopping, as did a Levite.
A man of the hated Samaritan people finally rendered aid. The story
is not just about helping the stranger but also helping and being helped by someone who looks like an enemy.
Samaritans, like Jews, are descendants of ancient Israelites. They
trace their lineage to one of the “lost” ten tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel.
They call themselves the Shemarim, the “guardians” of the Torah, and revere the Pentateuch, the five books
of Moses.
Samaritans are not Jews or Arabs. They are both, and neither –
all at the same time. Half live in the Israeli city of Holon and are Israelis,
the other half live atop their holy mountain, Mount Gerizim, above the city of Nablus in the West Bank.
The Mount Gerizim Samaritans are the only people to possess Palestinian and Israeli identity cards.
Samaritans believe that Noah’s ark landed on the mountain, that Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac there,
and that Joshua set up the biblical tabernacle there, now hidden in a cave in a cleft of the mountain.
Around 110 BC, the Maccabean
king, John Hyrcanus, destroyed their place of sacrifice on their holy mountain.
In later centuries, they were hounded by Byzantine Christians and then Muslims. In 1842, their community came close
to annihilation at the hands of Islamic zealots. It was saved only when the chief rabbi of Jerusalem testified to the Turkish
authorities that Samaritans are “Israelites who believe in the Torah of Moses.”
Decades later, when their population had
dwindled to fewer than 150 people, the Samaritans found their greatest modern leader: Jacob, son of Aaron.
Cultivating friendships with British and American Christians and Zionist Jews, Jacob became a sort of media
star, the face of his people to the world.
He developed a line of souvenirs and published a series of Samaritan books to
customers the world over. Under his leadership, and the protection lent by his Western friends – especially the state
of Israel – the Samaritan population rebounded to 850 today, priests, business people, bankers, teachers and scholars.
Jacob helped make the Samaritan Passover celebration a favorite destination for Middle East dignitaries and world
travelers. As their ancestors have done for centuries, every Samaritan family goes to the peak of Mount Gerizim to sacrifice
a sheep in what is now a huge public ceremony.
They date the tradition to the days of Moses, who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.
Drawing both Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the ceremony is an unusual moment of concord in the contentious Middle
Ast.
Yeshiva’s University’s exhibition at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., provides windows
into the “real” Samaritans – sometimes good, always human. Both
biblical and modern at the same time, the Samaritan story is far greater that the tribe’s numbers might suggest. Theirs is a lesson of shared humility in spite of hatred, which is good news at
any time of year.
