Samaritans

A thousand years ago, the Samaritans numbered more than a million people. Today, after suffering persecution from the Crusaders, the Romans, the Mamluks and the Muslims, they number less than seven hundred. In the past they lived in Nablus, but due to harassment from the Palestinians, some of them moved to an enclave in Holon, and most of them - to Mount Gerizim, the sacred place for the Samaritan community, where the ruins of their temple, which is the equivalent of the Jewish temple, are located.

The Samaritans have had a long debate with Judaism for years: they claim that they are the successors of the true tradition of Judaism. Elazar Tzada, the high priest and spiritual leader of the community, explains: "We Samaritans are descendants of the high priest Aaron, the sons of the religion of Moses. We are also called 'the Samaritans', because we have kept the tradition of Moses all these years."

According to a version that appears in the Gemara, the Samaritans are the Koths - the sons of Grim that the king of Assyria lived in Samaria. According to researchers, the Samaritans are descendants of the tribes of Israel who remained in the Samaria region with the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel. At first Judaism allowed them to be accepted, but in the second and third centuries, the buffer between Judaism and the Samaritans increased, who began to rebel against the Romans, and expressed independent positions: among other things, the Samaritans do not accept the holiness and uniqueness of Jerusalem, they religiously observe the rules of the Book of the Torah, but do not accept the other books of the Bible , and even reject the mitzvah of Shulchan Aruch.