For most people who have superficially studied the Holy Scriptures, the Samaritans are the people from the parable of Jesus. Kind, sympathetic people, judging by the plot of a short story described in the Bible.

Perhaps the majority believes that this people only remained in parables. But no. The Samaritans also exist in modern times - they live among us and in their separate little world. But what they are, where they live, what values ​​they preach, remains a mystery to the majority.

Controversial history

From time immemorial, those who are called the lawyers and scribes of Israel have promoted the version (and considered it the only correct one) about the Assyrian origin of the Samaritans. Say, in the 700s BC, when King Sargon defeated the then Samaria, he deported deep into his lands the indigenous population - the sons of Israel up to the tenth generation, and instead of them populated the city and the outskirts with pagan tribes, whose descendants are the modern Samaritans .

The Samaritans fundamentally disagree with this interpretation of history, which even now sounds from the mouths of the rabbis. This, they say, is a complete distortion of historical facts, with which they have been arguing for many centuries.

The Samaritans have always considered themselves to be real Jews, and the etymology "shomrim" has been deciphered and continues to be deciphered as a "keeper" and insist that it is they, a small but very proud people, who are the guardians of the true Jewish traditions and the real, correct, primordial Torah.

Are Samaritans and Jews the same people?

This question has always caused some disagreement between Samaritans and Jews. The former considered and continue to consider themselves true Jews, while the latter cannot accept this point of view.

Faith, as always. Not even faith, as such, but some discrepancies in the observance of religious rituals. If the Samaritans are supporters of the true Jewish heritage, that is, they reject biblical teachings, they consider Moses the only prophet, and Mount Gerizim is a sacred place, then even those of the Jews who are considered to be orthodox are not so categorical in religion.

Throughout their history, the Samaritans have lived as a rather isolated community, believing that they are true Jews, but the rest of the Jews do not recognize them in any way. These peoples (or people?) share neither more nor less - six thousand discrepancies in the Torah - Samaritan and canonized. And it has been that way for as long as they can remember.

Religion does not interfere with kindness

Almost from childhood, any Christian is familiar with the parable of the Samaritan who, despite hostility, helped an Israeli in trouble.

Significantly, it sounded from the lips of Jesus, the messiah, recognized by the entire Christian world and the Israelis too, but unrecognized by the Samaritans. Why did Jesus make the Samaritan the hero of the story? Is it only from the desire to reconcile the eternal religious duelists - Samaritans and Jews? Is it only for the edification of all the rest, who must love the enemy, and nothing else?

Or maybe it was the simplest illustration of the simplest truth that most of us, who are always at war with someone or something, cannot comprehend in any way: belonging to any of the religions absolutely does not prevent us from doing human actions.

Each of us is a Good Samaritan at heart. It is not religion that matters, but she is the soul, if given the opportunity to do so.

Where do Samaritans live and who do they marry?

Now there are very few Samaritans - about 1500 people, but at the beginning of the last century the number of this people turned out to be so small (only a few dozen) that they had to urgently take action and slightly open their very closed community to strangers. Or rather, a foreigner.

The first Samaritan wife "from the outside" was a Siberian named Maria. Now the Samaritan guys have expanded the geography of the search for spouses and are actively exploring the expanses of the CIS. Two Ukrainians, two Russians and four Azerbaijanis have already become the wives of the Samaritans.

But since the Samaritans are, first of all, the observance of traditions, the first requirement for girls is to undergo giyur (rite of conversion). Only then can one marry a Samaritan.

Despite all the measures taken, the people still remain small in number, they are listed by UNESCO in the special Red Book of ethnic groups that are threatened with extinction.

Modern Samaritans live in one of the prestigious quarters of the city of Holon, and several families have remained to live in the village of Kiryat Luza, in the immediate vicinity of their sacred Mount of Blessings.

From biblical stories, many people are familiar with the expression “good Samaritan”, which entered our lives from a parable told by Jesus to his disciples. In it, he told about the robbed traveler and the man who saved him. That unknown savior was a Samaritan. Since then, for the Christian world, these people have become the personification of kindness and selflessness.

conventional wisdom

In dictionaries, a Samaritan is interpreted as a person who unselfishly helps others. In the language, this expression has been used since the 17th century, the reason for this was the biblical parables.

The traveler, following from Jerusalem, met with robbers who robbed him, beat him and left him half-dead to die on the road. The clergyman, who happened to be nearby, passed him indifferently. So did the Levite walking by. The third passerby, seeing a man beaten by robbers lying on the ground, approached him. He was a good Samaritan. He washed the victim's wounds with wine and oil and bandaged them. He put it on the donkey, spreading his raincoat, took him to the hotel. A passer-by left him there in the care of the owner. This person paid both for accommodation and for caring for the sick.

At the end of the story, Jesus asked, “Which of the three do you think was your neighbor?” The clergyman replied that the neighbor, of course, was the third passerby. Jesus advised him to do as the Samaritan did.

The priest and the Levite treated poor and unfortunate people with condescension, did not consider them neighbors. There was no love for people in their hearts. And the biblical commandment says: "Love your neighbor as yourself, and do to him as you would like them to do to you." The described case shows that the Samaritan is the embodiment of kindness and love for man. He was not afraid that the robbers might return and brutally deal with him. He behaved with dignity.

Who are the Samaritans really?

True, what kind of nation this is, how it appeared in Judea, the vast majority of people have a very vague idea.

In fact, the Samaritans (in some sources they are called Samaritans) are an ethno-religious group with a rather long history. According to some theorists of Judaism, this nation originates from a man named Samer, a non-Jew who left Egypt with the Jews. They themselves consider themselves descendants of the Jewish tribe of Joseph, one of the first inhabitants of the Israelite kingdom.

However, for most Jews, the Samaritans are immigrants who arrived in Israel from the city of Kuta, located in Mesopotamia, along with people returning from the Babylonian captivity. For them, there is even the term "kutim", which clearly indicates their belonging to this city. These people appeared in Palestine after 722 BC. e., when the first kingdom of Israel fell under the blows of the Assyrian conquerors. Then a significant part of the indigenous population of Israel was taken into the so-called Babylonian captivity. The empty territories began to be populated by foreigners, who eventually gave rise to a new people.

According to Josephus, these settlers were the Hufeis (in the modern reading of the Gutia). Moving from Assyria to the territory of conquered Israel, they were compactly located on the territory of Samaria. It was here that the last center of the very first kingdom of Israel, leading from King Omri, was located. Settling in and around Samaria, the settlers gradually adopted the Jewish faith and some local traditions, although in some cases they retained their identity.

Thus, in particular, the Samaritans called themselves the only true keepers of the Old Testament, of which only the book of Joshua and the Samaritan Pentateuch are recognized as sacred by them. But the Talmud and the books of the Prophets are completely rejected by them. Such subtleties are connected with the fact that the Samaritans profess one of the versions of pre-prophetic Judaism, which is only a distant branch of classical Judaism.

However, this is not the main disagreement between Jews and Samaritans. The dispute between these peoples arose over the explanation of the words of Moses about the choice of a place for the construction of the Temple. According to the Jews, Moses spoke of Jerusalem's Mount Moriah, but the Samaritans are of the opinion that he called Mount Gerizim, located west of the Jordan River near Nablus (another name for the city of Shechem). These discrepancies in the words of Moses led to a long enmity between these peoples.

While having their own calendar, the Samaritans, however, recognize the Sabbath, as well as the traditional eating habits of true Jews. Their ritual of killing animals for food is identical to the Jewish one. However, the Passover celebration of the Samaritans takes place on Mount Gerizim. According to a long-standing tradition, seven lambs are sacrificed there.

History shows that the Jewish people were far from unity. Since ancient times, there have been cultural differences between the north and south of Canaan. When people enriched by a different culture began to arrive from Babylon and settle in Samaria, the demarcation between the native Jews and the Samaritans reached its climax. This resulted in a long-term mutual enmity, as well as a different attitude towards the events taking place around.

Taking advantage of the conquest of Judea by Alexander the Great, the Samaritans erected their temple on Mount Gerizim. However, after 2 centuries, the Hasmonean king destroyed it. With the arrival of the Romans in Judea, the Samaritans were granted autonomy. But for this they had to honor the pagan gods, which the true Jews categorically rejected. The Jewish wars against Rome led to a sharp decrease in people of Jewish nationality in Judea. This led to an increase in the percentage of the Samaritan population, which was less affected by these wars. Significant communities began to appear in areas that did not belong to them: Caesarea, Emmaus, Bet-Shean, etc. After the collapse of the Roman Empire and the subjugation of the Israeli lands by Byzantium, the Samaritans carried out several uprisings, and even declared their independence twice, enthroning their own kings. However, these speeches were suppressed.

Modern Samaritans

After unsuccessful uprisings, the number of Samaritans began to decrease steadily. By the beginning of the 20th century, their number had fallen to a critical figure of 146 people. Nevertheless, this ethnic group managed to survive. So that this nation would not completely dissolve among the Jews, in 1954 in Israel it was decided to gather the Samaritans together. Now their number is more than 700 people who compactly live in the village of Kiryat Luza near Nablus and in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, in the Neve Pinchas quarter of the city of Holon. The writing of the Samaritans has also been preserved. It has a Hebrew alphabet close to the Phoenician. Communication between people is carried out in two languages: the ancient Aramaic dialect and Arabic.

You have heard about the Samaritan since childhood, but if you are asked, you are unlikely to be able to tell about him. This story dates back to 332 BC.

For a long time there was enmity between the Jews of the North and the South. One of the reasons for such dislike was the support of the inhabitants of Samaria by Alexander the Great in his conquests.

As is known from Jewish sources, the Samaritans repeatedly tried to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem. This people also has important differences from other Jewish people:

• mixed (not purebred) ancestry
• own religion and, as a result, rituals
• proficiency in two languages ​​at once - Hebrew and Arabic
• marriages were made only within a small community, which led to a mixture of kindred blood and an unhealthy generation, etc.

Parable

The parable of the Good Samaritan is nothing more than parting words, an explanation of who the “neighbor” is. This is a story about how robbers attacked a Jew, robbed him and badly wounded him.

A priest, another Jew, and a Samaritan passed by him. And only the last one stopped and helped him. Here Jesus wanted to show that the "neighbor" person is every person on earth.

Not only the one who is closer to you by blood, by unanimity or religion is worthy of your attention and respect.

Until the fall in the 8th century. BC. The Kingdom of Israel called Samaria not only the city, but the whole part of the northern Eretz-Israel. Both the city of Samaria and the country of Samaria are found in cuneiform monuments. After the fall of the kingdom of Israel, only the area between the Judean mountains in the south and Galilee in the north began to be called Samaria. Approximately the same borders have been preserved to this day: in the south, the region of Samaria passes into the Judean mountains, and on the other three sides it is surrounded by valleys - Saron (Sharon) in the west, Jezreel in the north and Jordan in the east. The lands of the Samaria region are fertile, the climate is favorable for agriculture, and people have settled in these places since ancient times. Here our forefathers wandered, here, according to the Torah, God promised all these lands as a portion of their offspring.

When the land was divided between the Israelite tribes, the area of ​​Samaria went to the sons of Joseph - Ephraim and Menashe (in the Russian tradition - Manasseh). Therefore, the region is also called the "country of Joseph", or "the lands of Ephraim". At first, people settled here in the valleys and at the foot of the mountains, covered with dense forests. But, apparently, not everyone had enough space, and gradually they began to develop higher places, cutting down the forest.

The Bible says that when the descendants of Joseph complained about the lack of land, Joshua said to them: "And the mountain will be yours, and this forest; you will clear it, and it will be yours to the very end of it"

And indeed, cities such as Tirtza, Shechem, Shil "o, Bet-El grow one after another.
After the split of the United Kingdom of Israel, the region of Samaria became the center of the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the city of Samaria from the 70s. 9th century BC. - its capital.
In 722 BC the Assyrian king conquered Samaria and led many of the inhabitants away from the northern kingdom of Israel. And with the final fall of the latter, the ten tribes that lived in it disappeared.

Their disappearance seems so incredible that until now, folk legends call either Africa, or Burma, or China the place where they disappeared.

The remaining inhabitants of Samaria were not exterminated, and they began to mix with other peoples (mainly from Mesopotamia), which settled the region of Samaria, and the region itself turned into a province inhabited by subjects of the Assyrian king.

In the devastated region of Samaria, famine broke out every now and then. It happened that lions came here and dragged people away. Flavius ​​Josephus wrote that a plague raged throughout the area. The inhabitants of the region decided that these troubles were the punishment of the local deity, and went to the Assyrian ruler with a request to send them a Jewish clergyman. The ruler complied with their request. Then the inhabitants of Samaria began to worship the one God, "and they made priests among themselves, and they served them in the temples of heights. They served their gods according to the custom of the nations from which they were evicted" (II C., 17:32,33).

Alienation between the Jews of the southern kingdom of Judah and the inhabitants of the Samaria region was intensified due to the fact that the inhabitants of the Samaria region considered themselves part of the Jewish people, while the Jews did not consider themselves so

Isaiah wrote about the inhabitants of the Samaria region as follows: "" The sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the harlot! Are you not children of transgression, seeds of lies, kindled to lust for idols under every branchy tree, slaughtering children by the streams, between the clefts of the rocks?” (Ne., 57:3-5).

When the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity and started building the Second Temple, the inhabitants of the Samaria region asked them for permission to participate in the construction, "because we, like you, resort to your God" (Ezra, 4:2).

Their request was not granted, which exacerbated the alienation. In the 5th century BC. the inhabitants of Samaria, having formed their own sect, separated from Judaism. So there was a complete split between the Jews and the inhabitants of the Samaria region, who began to be called Samaritans. The Samaritans built their sanctuary on Mount Gerizim. The Jews also called the Samaritans Kutia (after the name of the city of Kuta in Babylonia, from where the Assyrian king resettled people in the Samaria region), and the region was called the country of the Kuts. However, according to Josephus, even after the schism and the construction of the Grizim temple, Jews fled to the Samaria region, who were persecuted in Jerusalem for violating the Sabbath or for mixed marriages. In the region of Samaria, these Jews found a warm welcome. So at the time of the Second Temple, the entire region of Samaria was inhabited not only by Samaritans, but also by Jews.

In the V-IV centuries. BC. The position of the Samaritans was no different from that of the Jews. So, after the death of Alexander the Great, part of the Samaritans, like the Jews, were forcibly resettled in Egypt. But the common persecution of Samaritans and Jews did not unite them.

When the Maccabees revolted, the Samaritans declared that they had nothing to do with the Jews, and agreed with the order of the Greek rulers to dedicate their sanctuary on Mount Gerizim to Zeus (which did not prevent the Samaritans in a religious dispute with the Jews from asserting that the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim was created according to Moses law). Even when the Greeks recognized the Maccabean dynasty, the Samaritans continued to fight against the Jews. In 128 BC The Maccabees occupied the region of Samaria and destroyed the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim.

The conflicts between the Samaritans and the Jews continued during Roman rule. So, in 50 BC, when the Jews of Galilee went to the Passover holiday in Jerusalem through Samaria, they were attacked by the Samaritans near the village of Guinea (today Jenin). The procurator of Judea, bribed by the latter, refused to punish the guilty. Then the Jews of Galilee plundered and burned several Samaritan villages. The Samaritans, like the Jews, suffered under Roman rule.

In the time of Pontius Pilate, when the Samaritans gathered on Mount Gerizim only because a certain Samaritan promised to find sacred vessels buried since the time of Moses, the Roman procurator, fearing riots, surrounded the mountain and killed many Samaritans. True, when the elders turned to the Roman rulers with a complaint about the cruelty of the procurator, Pontius Pilate was sent to Rome to report to Caesar, and he never returned to his post.

During the Jewish War, the Samaritans, having gathered on Mount Gerizim, took a wait-and-see position, which did not prevent the Roman troops from killing them. However, when the Bar Kokhba rebellion (135-137) began, the Samaritans participated in the suppression of the rebellion. As a sign of gratitude, the Romans allowed them to rebuild the sanctuary on Mount Gerizim. However, reconciliation with the Romans did not last long. In 194, the Samaritans rebelled against the Roman governor Septimius Severus, for which he turned their main city of Shechem into a Roman colony and settled the Romans there.

Feeding a deep hatred for Christians, the Samaritans attacked them on the days of Passover 484 and beat them. As punishment, the Byzantine emperor destroyed their sanctuary on Mount Gerizim and built a large church in its place. A crowd of Samaritans killed all the watchmen of this church. The Samaritans were again punished, and in May 529, under the emperor Justinian, they revolted, burning and plundering numerous churches and Christian villages. But soon the leader of the uprising was killed, and the uprising was crushed. Justinian took a number of measures against the Samaritans: they were forbidden to hold official positions and receive property as gifts and inheritances, their synagogues were plundered.

Although the punishment was mitigated over time, some of the Samaritans fled to pre-Islamic Persia, and some assimilated with the local population.

With the beginning of the Arab conquest, Muslims came to the region of Samaria and settled all the cities: Shechem, Ginea (Jenin), Tul-Karm. Only in Shechem a small area has been preserved where the descendants of the Samaritans still live. To this day they consider themselves true Jews and have kept their synagogue.
During the War of Independence in 1948, Iraqi troops occupied the Samaria region and began to advance towards the Saron and Jezreel valleys. Jewish settlers and a young Jewish army halted their advance. Immediately after the end of the war, the Iraqi units withdrew from the Samaria region, and the Jordanians took their place.

During the Six Day War, the Samaria region was occupied by the Israelis. Today, the majority of the population is Muslim. The main city of the district is Shechem. One of the central roads of Ramallah - Shechem - Jenin passes through the entire district. Other roads branch off from this road to the east and west.

In the region of Samaria, new Jewish settlements grew up on the site of ancient Jewish cities or near them and received the names of their predecessors: Bet-El, Giv "on, Bet-Horon, El-Kana, Ofra, Shil" o.

SHKHEM (NABLUS, SIKHEM)

Between the mountains of Ebal (Ebal) and Gerizim lies the city of Shechem with a population of several tens of thousands of inhabitants. It is built on a mountain pass that connected the coastal regions of the Mediterranean with the Jordan Valley. Narrow crooked streets, mosques, churches, long shopping malls, soap factories, and on the eastern outskirts - Tel Balata (a hill of rubble), where in ancient times the city of Shechem was located, which was of great importance.

In Shechem, God said to Abram: "... To your offspring I will give this land." (Gen., 12-7)
Abraham's grandson Jacob wanted to settle near Shechem, but the eldest son of the Shechem king Emmor (Hamor) kidnapped Jacob's daughter Dina and, dishonoring her, wanted to marry her and asked for her hand. In revenge for the kidnapping of Dinah, her brothers Simson and Levi set a condition for the inhabitants of Shechem: all men should be circumcised.

The condition was accepted, but the brothers nevertheless attacked the inhabitants of Shechem and killed the entire male sex; "... and they plundered the city because they dishonored their sister" (Gen. 34; 25.27).
".... You angered me, making me hated by the inhabitants of this land..." (Gen. 34:30), Jacob reproached his sons and decided to leave Shechem. He ordered his household to go on the road, leaving foreign gods and idols. Jacob buried foreign gods under an oak near Shechem (Shechem).

Under this oak a few centuries later, Joshua gathered all the tribes (tribes) of Israel and renewed Israel's covenant with God. The remains of Joseph brought from Egypt were transferred to Shechem and buried in a field plot that Joseph bought for a hundred coins from the sons of Hamor.

When the land was divided, Shechem went to the tribe of Ephraim. Then it was given to the Levites and included among the cities of refuge. Cities of refuge existed at the behest of Moses to protect people who committed manslaughter. Shechem became one of the Jewish religious centers. The history of the city has preserved not only sacred traditions, but also stories of uprisings, apostasy and schism.

Shechem was destroyed during the Jewish War. But immediately after this war, the Roman emperor Vespasian of the Flavian family built a new city called Flavia Neapolis (new proud Flavius). However, the Samaritans called him Maborta. Neapolis has also become one of the most important cities for Christians. A church was built here.

With the strengthening of Christianity, conflicts between Samaritans and Christians began to turn into armed clashes. Emperor Justinian I increased the number of churches and Neapolis became the center of an episcopal diocese. The city was surrounded by walls.

Muslim conquerors called Neapolis little Damascus. In the Middle Ages, the city passed into the hands of the crusaders, and they built new churches there. But in 1184 Saladin's troops conquered Shechem.

When Jerusalem fell into the hands of the Mongols in 1259, the Jews fled to Shechem and brought the Torah scrolls there. The inhabitants of the city, mostly Muslims, preferred another name for the city - Nablus (from Neapolis). According to folk etymology, this name contains a combination of two words: "nab" - a tooth and "lus" - the name of a huge snake that was found in these places. This snake sowed fear among the inhabitants, then they killed it, and hung the zkby over the gates of the city.

By the beginning of the XX century. Jews left Shechem and returned there after the First World War, but the Arab uprising of 1936-1939. forced them to leave again. From 1948 to 1967 Shechem, like all of Samaria, was under the control of Jordan, and during the Six Day War it was occupied by Israeli troops. Today, about 100 thousand people live in Shechem, mostly Muslims, a small number of Christians and Samaritans.

The ruins of the biblical city remain to the west of Joseph's tomb. These are the remains of the defensive walls of the era of the patriarchs; the remains of a 3600-year-old temple of the Hyksos, traces of the era of the Judges and Kings of Israel. Its oldest part, today called Tel Balata, is located three kilometers from the city center. The word "balut" in Arabic means the same as "alon" in Hebrew - "oak". Cyclopean wall dating from 2000 BC e., was strengthened in 1750 - 1650. BC e., possibly by Jews, and was located at the northwestern gate of the ancient city.

The ruins of the eastern gate have also been preserved. At the top of the hill there is a platform with columns, apparently the remains of the famous basilica built by Empress Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine in 325. In the center of the church there was an oak tree, near which Abraham set up an altar - "Alon More". The barrow was excavated in the 10s and 20s. of our century. At the foot of the mound is the tomb of one of the sons of Jacob, Joseph the Beautiful. Joseph's body was brought from Egypt and buried on a piece of land that belonged to Jacob. The building of the crypt was rebuilt by Muslims. At the foot of Mount Eval there is a large cemetery used from the time of King David to the Romans, large and beautiful Roman mausoleums of the 3rd century BC have been preserved here. n. e. and many sarcophagi. In the eastern part of the city there is a deep ancient well, which tradition connects with the forefather Jacob - Beer Yaakov. Above the well are the ruins of three churches.

This place has been very important for Christianity since ancient times, since it was here that Jesus met a woman (John 4), at which the words were spoken: “everyone who drinks this water will thirst again.”

This story is considered one of the fundamental ones in Christian theology. The first church was built in Byzantine times and then rebuilt by the crusaders. The Church of the Crusaders, in the crypt of which the remains of the Byzantine one were preserved, began to be reconstructed in 1914 by representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church with the money of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, but for a known reason in 1917 the work was interrupted.

On the southeastern slopes of Mount Eval, there is a small village - the suburb of Askar, in which a large Samaritan mausoleum, excavated in 1972, has been preserved. In the crypt there are several beautiful sarcophagi with drawings and inscriptions, apparently related to the 2nd and 3rd centuries n. e. The Old City of Shechem is called "Kasbah" and consists mainly of houses of the Turkish period, although Mameluke and even Byzantine buildings have been preserved. Part of the modern population of Shechem are Samaritans who live in the Sumara quarter. The ancient synagogue houses a thousand-year-old Torah scroll.

Jewish tradition believes that the building in which the Great Cohen Avishua ben Pinchas bei Eliezer ben Aaron taught still stands here. The Christian quarter is called "Rapidia", there are many buildings of the crusaders and 3 churches: a Greek Orthodox church built at the beginning of this century, a Catholic and an Anglican one. The city center is a huge bazaar; there is no industry in modern Shechem. The three most important mosques in the city are the "Great" - the former church of the Crusaders, the "Mosque of the Prophets", where, according to legend, 10 sons of Jacob are buried, and the "Green Mosque", in which the Arabs show the place where Jacob cried his eyes out after the staged murder of Joseph. The Green Mosque may have once been a Samaritan synagogue. The Arabs of Israel do not like the inhabitants of Shechem too much, “nablusi” is the symbol of a homosexual among the Palestinians.

MOUNT GRIZIM (HARIZIM)

Rising near the city of Shechem, Mount Gerizim, 771 meters high, has been a holy place for the Samaritans for 2,300 years.

On this mountain, the Samaritans offer sacrifice to the Most High, as was the case under Joshua. One of the most interesting Samaritan traditions is the celebration of Easter. On the eve of the holiday, the whole community goes up to the sacred mountain and pitches tents, as it spends a whole week there. At the top of the mountain there is an altar built of powerful stone blocks. The Passover sacrifice is offered on it. Seven lambs lie at the altar, prepared for the slaughter. They are killed according to the established rite and roasted on skewers. Then there is a traditional meal. In Shechem, in an ancient synagogue, a thousand-year-old Torah scroll is kept. On Saturday mornings, a chapter from the Torah is read. Judaism has always rejected the faith of the Samaritans as a religious heresy, but the Samaritans themselves consider themselves the only true sons of Israel.

The ruins of the biblical city remain to the west of Joseph's tomb. These are the remains of the defensive walls of the era of the patriarchs; the remains of a 3600-year-old temple of the Hyksos, traces of the era of judges and kings of Israel.

Mount Gerizim, the most sacred to the Samaritans, is called by the Arabs Jabal al-Tur (mountain of the summit): this is how they call especially holy mountains. Mount Gerizim has been a sacred place for all religions for centuries. There was a tower on Mount Gerizim where the pagans worshiped Baal; an oak sacred to the Jews grew; there was an altar of Abraham and Jacob and the sacred stone of Joshua lay, on it were Hellenistic, Christian, and, finally, Muslim shrines. But for the Samaritans, it remains the most holy place to this day. They call it Tur ha-Briha (translated from Aramaic - the mountain of Blessing) and during prayers they turn to face it.

The Jews called this mountain the Mount of Blessings, for even Moses commanded his people: "When the Lord your God brings you into the land into which you are going to take possession of it, then pronounce a blessing on Mount Gerizim ..." (Deut., 11:29).

Opposite Mount Gerizim stands the higher Mount Ebal (Ebal), from which Moses commanded the Levites (servants of the Temple) to pronounce a curse on their enemies, and the Jews called it the Mount of Curses.

The Samaritans claim that the Torah of Moses, sacred vessels and manna from heaven, which will be found when the Messiah appears, are hidden on Mount Gerizim. On Mount Gerizim, archaeologists discovered the remains of the sanctuary of Zeus. It was built in the II century. n. e. under Emperor Hadrian. Next to this sanctuary are the ruins of a Byzantine church and the tomb of an Arab sheikh. Here is the grave of the Shechem king Emmor, whose son dishonored Dinah. But that sacred oak is not there, that tower is not there, only the altar of sacred stones has been preserved. But the abundance of springs and greenery on the blessed Mount Gerizim and their complete absence on the damned Mount Ebal are striking.

Who are the Samaritans and why did they become enemies of the Jews?

In the Bible, the Samaritans (Samaritans) are the population of Samaria, the territory of the former kingdom of Israel after its destruction by the Assyrian king Sargon II (in 721 BC). The biblical chronicler tells the following about the origin of the Samaritans. Having driven most of the surviving Israelis to Assyria, Sargon II settled (in 721-710) in their place colonists from Babylon, Kuta, Abba, Hamath and Separvaim captured by the Assyrians. Since at first the settlers did not honor the Jewish God, the Almighty sent lions on them. The Samaritans notified the Assyrian king of this misfortune, citing their ignorance of the laws of the God of the land on which they now live as the cause. Then the Assyrian king commanded that a priest be sent to the Samaritans from among the Israelites who had been taken captive, so that he would teach the settlers the laws of the Jewish God. Having adopted a new religion, the Samaritans continued to worship their old gods. They subsequently began to appoint priests from among themselves. After the capture of Babylon in 648 BC by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal, the Dineans, Afarsafkhei, Tarpelei, Apars, Arekhyans, Babylonians, Susans, Dagi, Elamites "and other peoples" were also resettled in Samaria. Such a multitude of foreign peoples were able to get along with each other and even form an integral national-religious community, which was the Samaritans, largely because there were quite a lot of Jews left on the territory of the former Kingdom of Israel, under the influence of which the settlers largely fell and with whom in the end eventually assimilated. When, in 536 BC, the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity and began building a new temple in Jerusalem, the Samaritans “came ... to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the generations, and said to them: We will also build with you, because we, like you, we run to your God, and to him we offer sacrifices.” The Jews rejected the help offered wholeheartedly, which caused bitterness and hatred of the Samaritans. “And the people of that land began to weaken the hands of the people of Judah and hinder their building; and bribed advisers against them to destroy their enterprise. Three centuries later, the Samaritans helped the Syrians put down a Jewish rebellion led by Judas Maccabee. The enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans continued into the period described in the New Testament. Instructing the apostles, Jesus told them, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter into the city of the Samaritans” (Matthew 10:5). When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for water, she answered in surprise: “How can you, being a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, to drink? for the Jews do not communicate with the Samaritans.” As a decisive argument in a dispute with Jesus, his opponents say to him: “Do we not say the truth that You are a Samaritan and that a demon is in You?” Subsequently, Jesus changed his attitude towards the Samaritans, and many of them became Christians.