Ascending to Mount Gerizim
by Corinne Spector
A Samaritan Passover celebration May 2021 by Corinne Spector
We've heard of the Good Samaritan – the story of the good person who helped a man who had been robbed, beaten and left for dead along the road, when others did their best to avoid him. But what most people don't know is that this Samaritan tribe still exists today, quite close to where I live in central Israel.
The Samaritans, or Shomronim as they are called in Hebrew, continue to live in peace, straddling two worlds by holding identity papers saying they are both Israelis and Palestinians. Many of them live in the Israeli city of Holon, adjacent to Tel Aviv*, but their holy site is near Nablus, on Mount Gerizim. They speak three languages: Hebrew, Arabic and also Shomronit, which includes just 22 ancient-looking letters and sounds like a combination of Hebrew and Arabic. They are considered an Israelite group that broke off from the Jews of Judah in the time of King Rehoboam (son of Solomon and grandson of David) who lived from 972 BC to 915 BC**.
Today, they look and act like all of the other Israelis around (one woman is even a famous children's television actress), yet when it comes time for Sabbath and holy days, their festivities are completely different. They perform ceremonies just as they did in ancient times, over 4000 years ago. In fact,
the Hebrew word for Samaritan is 'Shomroni' which means to keep or to guard; they believe they are guardians of the Bible, as it was written originally.
Of course, their Bible is written in the Shomronit letters.
Recently I had the opportunity to join the Samaritans in celebrating the 7th day of Passover when they climb up Mount Gerizim. The mountain is 881 meters high and they view it as the oldest and most central mountain in the world.
It is the site where they believe the Holy Temple existed, and not in Jerusalem as other Jews do. Jerusalem, they say, is not mentioned in the Five Books of Moses, the only ones they believe in, and Moses is their only prophet.
For me, as an almost totally secular person, this was an entirely new, yet also familiar ancient cultural and spiritual experience.
The Samaritans met at 2:30 am at the Kiryat Luza synagogue near Nablus. Dressed in the style of the Israelites who left Egypt, they wore belted white trousers and white shirts or robes, reminiscent of Joseph's striped robe.
Their shoes were left outside in piles in the lobby of the synagogue, while they prayed.
Around 4:00 am, we put on our shoes and began the climb up Mount Gerizim. It was a group mostly of men, with some children and a few women.
The group begins, in the darkness, to follow one another quietly up the mountain, singing and praying about the Exodus from Egypt and the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover) when they stopped at each station.
The Samaritans were lit by the moon --their white clothing glowing. The group stopped at several stations along the way, including spots they believe are the altar where Abraham almost sacrificed his son Isaac, and the place they call "God will provide" where Abraham found a ram to replace Isaac. There is also the site of the altar of Adam and his son Seth, the site of the 12 stones where Joshua crossed the Jordan river with the Israelites into the land of Israel, and the Everlasting Hill (in the Samaritan bible: The blessings Jacob gives Joseph are greater than those of the ancient mountains, greater than the beauty of the everlasting hills).
As we went up, the first rays of the sun begin to light the way. The bible scroll, lifted up by the High Priest, was lit up as if God has touched it.
The worshippers looked like the first group of people after the dawn of Creation, and what I saw was a collection of holy moments. We experienced the sunrise together, just as those before us did on Mount Sinai when they received the Ten Commandments, and a kind of spiritual inspiration hovered over us all. When they came down from the mountain, they enjoyed a festive meal together.
Here, so close to home, is a simple and pure ceremony, just like ours once was so many centuries ago.
********
More background about the Samaritans, Judaism and Israel:
The Samaritans were a community of over a million people in the fifth century CE, but as they refused to leave Mount Gerizim, they experienced centuries of extreme persecution by the various nations that came through this area, and were converted to Islam and Christianity against their will, even raped and killed. In short, by the year 1917, the Samaritans almost became extinct, with only 146 members spread out across Israel.
*After the State of Israel was established in 1948, and a historian named Itzhak Ben Zvi became President (from 1952-1963), he called on them to gather from all around Israel because "sparks outside the fire will die out". The first town that accepted them was Holon, and much of the community still lives there, in total now numbering about 800 people. Others remain near Nablus on Mount Bracha and Mount Gerizim.
**The Samaritans broke off from the Israelites when there was a disagreement about whether Elli, an experienced mentor of priests, 60+ years old would become the High Priest (Cohen) or rather the "rightful heir" named Uzi, a mere 15 year-old boy whose father Buki the High Priest, had just died.
As the Samaritans see it, the rest of the Jews' religion has become diluted over time as a result of the many places where the Jews have been scattered. The Samaritans, however, have kept their practices exactly and they say that members of their group hold exactly the same values the Samaritans have always held.
There are five main Samaritan principles:
1. There is one God, that of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
2. There is one prophet: Moses
3. There is one bible: the Five Books of Moses
4. Their holy place is Mount Gerizim, the house of God where the Holy Temple stood 5. At the 'End of Days' they believe that those who have done good things will be rewarded, and those who are found lacking, will pay.
All Jews today believe in the first and last principles; they also believe that there are more prophets and other holy books, and Jerusalem is the capital.
I was born in 1961 in Morocco, and live in Israel at the age of nine months. I spent my childhood in Jaffa. I was always a storyteller; I am the eldest of six sisters,
so I always invented and told them stories. My passion for photography was born
a long time ago. It seems I always had a camera but I never really learned to take photos. I always documented my daily life, and that of my family, and with my camera, I wanted to tell stories.
