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PASSOVER
(Continued)
THE SAMARITAN PASSOVER MEAL
On the day of the Seder (Erev Hag), the Samaritans build huge fires in large brick-lined ovens dug into the ground. Some of these ovens must be quite ancient. The fires are more like bonfires and the flames shoot out of the ground into the sky. These fires burn for most of the afternoon. The bricks lining the ovens become red-hot and even white-hot from the heat.
As the holiday nears and dusk approaches, large stone lids are placed on the tops of the ovens, smothering and extinguishing the fires, but trapping the heat inside.
Then a procession of priests dressed in white robes approaches. There is singing and some prayers are said as everyone gathers about the ovens. Some sheep are brought and a Shochat kosher kills the animals in a surprisingly swift procedure. The blood is drained from the animals and after some preparation, the animals are placed on spits and lowered into the ovens. The stone lids are placed back on top of the ovens. By the time the evening prayer services have been completed, the food will be ready.
The evening prayer services are conducted in Hebrew, of course, not that much different from what you would expect at a synagogue Passover service. Of course, some familiar prayers are missing since the Samaritans restrict themselves to the Biblical time-frame.
Even small children seem perfectly at ease conversing among themselves in Samaritan Hebrew. With all of their religiously pious lifestyle, it is difficult to grasp that the Samaritans are not considered to be Jews by Israel's Chief Rabbinate -- the result of an ancient political struggle in Biblical days.
LIFE AMONG THE ARABS
The Samaritans who live in Nablus and the surrounding area, have special Passover villas on Mount Grizim which are kept sealed and locked during the year. During Passover, they leave their houses in the city and move into the special Passover dwellings on Mount Grizim. These houses are kept "kosher for Passover" all year round and are only used during Passover.
I asked one of the Samaritans how it is to live among the Arabs for so many centuries. He explained that the most difficult part was being cut off from their relatives in Israel during the 19 years that Jordan controlled the West Bank following Israel's War of Independence.
The local Palestinians referred to them derisively as "Jews." There were years when during Passover, Arab youths would sneak up into Mount Grizim and throw pitas and bread through the windows of the Samaritan Passover dwellings, knowing that this would make them unfit for habitation.
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