Passover (Samaritan holiday)

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Passover is a festival in Samaritanism.

Samaritans' Passover pilgrimage on Mount Gerizim. Samaritans marking Passover on Mount Gerizim, West Bank - 20060418.jpg
Samaritans' Passover pilgrimage on Mount Gerizim.

Samaritans make a pilgrimage to Mount Gerizim in the West Bank, with men participating in public worship. [1] [2]

Samaritan Passovers are each one day long, followed by the six-day Festival of Unleavened Bread – for a total of seven days. [3] that includes the ancient lamb sacrifice on Mount Gerizim on the 7th day.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passover</span> Jewish holiday

Passover, also called Pesach, is a major Jewish holiday, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, that celebrates the Biblical story of the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt. Pesach starts on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan which is considered the first month of the Hebrew year. The Hebrew calendar is adjusted to align with the solar calendar in such a way that 15 Nisan always coincides with Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. The Hebrew day starts and ends at sunset, so the holiday starts at sunset the day before. For example, in 2023, 15 Nisan coincides with Thursday April 6. Therefore, Pesach starts at sundown Wednesday April 5. The word Pesach or Passover can also refer to the Korban Pesach, the paschal lamb that was offered when the Temple in Jerusalem stood; to the Passover Seder, the ritual meal on Passover night; or to the Feast of Unleavened Bread. One of the biblically ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals, Passover is celebrated for seven days in Israel and for eight days among the Jewish diaspora, based on the concept of yom tov sheni shel galuyot. In the Bible, the seven-day holiday is known as Chag HaMatzot, the feast of unleavened bread (matzah).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samaritanism</span> Ethnic religion of the Samaritan people

Samaritanism is the Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion of the Samaritan people, an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. Its central holy text is the Samaritan Pentateuch, which Samaritans believe is the original, unchanged version of the Torah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samaritans</span> Ethnoreligious group native to the Levant

Samaritans, also known as Israelite Samaritans, are an ethnoreligious group who originate from the ancient Israelites. They are native to the Levant and adhere to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic and ethnic religion similar to Judaism, but differing in several important aspects.

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Samaria is the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron, used as a historical and biblical name for the central region of Palestine, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is known to the Palestinians in Arabic under two names, Samirah, and Mount Nablus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synagogue</span> House of worship in Judaism or Samaritanism

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samaritan Pentateuch</span> Samaritan version of the first five Biblical books

The Samaritan Torah, commonly called the Samaritan Pentateuch, is a text of the Torah written in the Samaritan script and used as sacred scripture by the Samaritans. It dates back to one of the ancient versions of the Hebrew Bible that existed during the Second Temple period, and constitutes the entire biblical canon in Samaritanism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moriah</span> Location in the Book of Genesis

Moriah is the name given to a mountainous region in the Book of Genesis, where the binding of Isaac by Abraham is said to have taken place. Jews identify the region mentioned in Genesis and the specific mountain in which the near-sacrifice is said to have occurred with "Mount Moriah", mentioned in the Book of Chronicles as the place where Solomon's Temple is said to have been built, and both these locations are also identified with the current Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Samaritan Torah, on the other hand, transliterates the place mentioned for the binding of Isaac as Moreh, a name for the region near modern-day Nablus. It is believed by the Samaritans that the near-sacrifice actually took place on Mount Gerizim, near Nablus in the West Bank.

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Shavuot, or Shvues in some Ashkenazi usage, commonly known in English as the Feast of Weeks, is one of the biblically-ordained Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It occurs on the sixth day of the Hebrew month of Sivan; in the 21st century, it may fall between May 15 and June 14 on the Gregorian calendar.

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Shechem, also spelled Sichem, was an ancient city in the southern Levant. Mentioned as a Canaanite city in the Amarna Letters, it later appears in the Hebrew Bible as the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel following the split of the United Monarchy. According to Joshua 21:20–21, it was located in the tribal territorial allotment of the tribe of Ephraim. Shechem declined after the fall of the northern Kingdom of Israel. The city later regained its importance as a prominent Samaritan center during the Hellenistic period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counting of the Omer</span> Counting of the days from Passover to Shavuot

Counting of the Omer is a ritual in Judaism. It consists of a verbal counting of each of the 49 days between the holidays of Passover and Shavuot. The period of 49 days is known as the "omer period" or simply as "the omer" or "sefirah".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eli (biblical figure)</span> High priest of Shiloh in ancient Israel

Eli was, according to the Book of Samuel, a priest and a judge of the Israelites in the city of Shiloh, ancient Israel. When Hannah came to Shiloh to pray for a son, Eli initially accused her of drunkenness, but when she protested her innocence, Eli wished her well. Hannah's eventual child, Samuel, was raised by Eli in the tabernacle. When Eli failed to rein in the abusive behavior of his own sons, God promised to punish his family, which resulted in the death of Eli's sons at the Battle of Aphek where the Ark of the Covenant was also captured. When Eli heard the news of the captured Ark, he fell from his seat, broke his neck, and died. Later biblical passages mention the fortunes of several of Eli's descendants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Gerizim</span> Mountain in the West Bank

Mount Gerizim is one of two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the Palestinian city of Nablus and the biblical city of Shechem. It forms the southern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the northern side being formed by Mount Ebal. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 881 m (2,890 ft) above sea level, 70 m (230 ft) lower than Mount Ebal. The mountain is particularly steep on the northern side, is sparsely covered at the top with shrubbery, and lower down there is a spring with a high yield of fresh water. For the Samaritan people, most of whom live around it, Mount Gerizim is considered the holiest place on Earth.

In Judaism, the korban, also spelled qorban or corban, is any of a variety of sacrificial offerings described and commanded in the Torah. The plural form is korbanot, korbanoth, or korbanos.

The Three Pilgrimage Festivals or Shalosh Regalim, are three major festivals in Judaism—two in spring; Passover, 49 days later Shavuot ; and in autumn Sukkot —when all Israelites who were able were expected to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem as commanded by the Torah. In Jerusalem, they would participate in festivities and ritual worship in conjunction with the services of the kohanim (priests) at the Temple.

Christian observance of Passover is found among Assemblies of Yahweh, Messianic Jews, and some congregations of the Church of God. It is often linked to the Christian holiday and festival of Easter. Often, only an abbreviated seder is celebrated to explain the meaning in a time-limited ceremony. The redemption from the bondage of sin through the sacrifice of Christ is celebrated, a parallel of the Jewish Passover's celebration of redemption from bondage in the land of Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Ebal</span> Mountain in the West Bank

Mount Ebal is one of the two mountains in the immediate vicinity of the city of Nablus in the West Bank, and forms the northern side of the valley in which Nablus is situated, the southern side being formed by Mount Gerizim. The mountain is one of the highest peaks in the West Bank and rises to 940 m (3,080 ft) above sea level, some 60 m (200 ft) higher than Mount Gerizim. Mount Ebal is approximately 17 km2 (6.6 sq mi) in area, and is composed primarily of limestone. The slopes of the mountain contain several large caverns which were probably originally quarries, and at the base towards the north are several tombs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pesachim</span> Jewish religious legal document

Pesachim, also spelled Pesahim, is the third tractate of Seder Moed of the Mishnah and of the Talmud. The tractate discusses the topics related to the Jewish holiday of Passover, and the Passover sacrifice, both called "Pesach" in Hebrew. The tractate deals with the laws of matza and maror, the prohibitions against owning or consuming chametz (leaven) on the festival, the details of the Paschal lamb that used to be offered at the Temple in Jerusalem, the order of the feast on the first evening of the holiday known as the Passover seder, and the laws of the supplemental "Second Pesach".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passover sacrifice</span> Ancient Jewish practice

The Passover sacrifice, also known as the Paschal lamb or the Passover lamb, is the sacrifice that the Torah mandates the Israelites to ritually slaughter on the evening of Passover, and eat on the first night of the holiday with bitter herbs and matzo. According to the Torah, it was first offered on the night of the Exodus from Egypt. Although practiced by Jews in ancient times, the sacrifice is today only part of Beta Israel, Karaite and Samaritan observance.

al-Badhan Municipality type D in Nablus, State of Palestine

al-Badhan is a Palestinian village in the Nablus Governorate in the North central West Bank, located 7.28 kilometres (4.52 mi) northeast of Nablus, and 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) to the north of Elon Moreh. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the village had a population of 3,171 inhabitants in 2017.

Aharon ben Ab-Chisda ben Yaacob also transliterated as Aaron b. Abhisda b. Jacob was a Samaritan nurse and priest who in old age served as the Samaritan High Priest.

References

  1. Smith, Mike (19 April 2019). "Tiny Samaritan community marks Passover sacrifice as numbers grow". The Times of Israel. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  2. Romey, Kristin (April 19, 2019). "The very ancient Passover of one of the smallest religions in the world". National Geographic. Archived from the original on July 12, 2019. Retrieved July 12, 2019.
  3. Cohen, Jeffrey M. (2008). 1,001 Questions and Answers on Pesach. p. 291. ISBN   978-0853038085.