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The relationship between Jews and Samaritans?

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Ari Ben-Canaan:
Were the Samaritans, or their ancestors, at any time Jews/Israelites?

Are we in any way related to Samaritans?

How similar is their torah to our Torah?  How similar is their language to our Hebrew?

Were the Samaritans a group who came to be during the Jewish exile who usurped the land of Israel?

Are the Samaritans a group of people who merely "bootlegged" Judaism in a "copycat" type way?

What is the deal with their temple?  Is it still standing?  Did/does it have similar structure to ours?

Do they use the Talmud at all?

Thanks.  :)

muman613:
Samaritans stabbed the Jews in the back according to what I have learned. To me the phrase "Good Samaritan" is an Oxymoron...


http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/230/Q3/


--- Quote ---Janet from Dallas, Texas wrote:

    Dear Rabbi,

    Could you please tell me the ways in which Samaritans differed from other Jews? I am preparing a talk and would like to be able to enumerate why the Samaritans were considered different from other Jews. Thank you for your help.

Dear Janet,

The Samaritans were non-Jews brought to Israel by the Assyrians to populate the North after the exile of the Ten Tribes. They ostensibly converted to Judaism, but in reality they continued worshipping idols, save for a period when they were mistakenly considered genuine converts; hence the Samaritans were not considered Jews, neither by Jewish law nor by the Jewish people.

They did not accept the Oral Tradition, which forms the overwhelming bulk of Jewish law. They also did not accept any books of the Bible except for the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua. Today, the Samaritan version of the Torah manuscript differs from ours by about 800 letters.

The Samaritans often acted as enemies of the Jewish people. They tried to destroy the Temple and to inform against the Jews to Roman authorities. The parable of the "Good Samaritan" was actually an anti-Semitic story intended to discredit the Jews.
--- End quote ---

http://www.simpletoremember.com/articles/a/assyrian_conquest/


--- Quote ---The Assyrians bring in a bunch of people from someplace else, who—because they are now living in Shomron or Samaria—come to be known as Samaritans.

The Samaritans are people who more or less adopt Judaism, but not properly or for the right reasons. Because their conversion is not complete or sincere, they are never accepted by the Jewish people, and they’re very resentful.

Indeed, the Samaritans have a long history of animosity towards the Jews, and while many people are familiar with the story of the “good Samaritan” from the Christian gospels, in Jewish consciousness (and history) the Samaritans are rarely considered good.

Today there are only about 600 Samaritans left, their cult site is in Mount Grizim, which is right next to the city of Shechem, called Nablus in Arabic.
--- End quote ---

Obviously they don't use the Talmud because they reject the Oral Tradition, which is what the Talmud is... Also the Talmud was not codified {or written} until after the second Beit Mikdash was destroyed... I believe the Samaritans were around since the time of the Greek invasion.

Ari Ben-Canaan:
Fascinating.

--- Quote ---The Samaritans were non-Jews brought to Israel by the Assyrians to populate the North after the exile of the Ten Tribes.
--- End quote ---

If the Jews were bused out to foreign lands, it would only make sense that others were bused in to replace them.  This must have been done to subjugate people under Assyrian rule, to fracture the identity of those who were conquered.

Thanks again! :)

muman613:
http://www.jewishmag.com/78mag/samaritans/samaritans.htm


--- Quote ---Brothers-enemies

Samaritans, from the ancient Hebrew word "guards", believe that the Mount Grizim is famous Moria and consider themselves heirs of the ancient Israel Kingdom. They claim that not all the people of Israel Kingdom were led away by the Assyrian king. A considerable number of them remained – foremost the branch of Yosef, which was split into the Ephraim and Menashe tribes.

Actually this isn't Tanach version. According to Tanach, modern Samaritans are descendants of pagan tribes from Mesopotamia, North Syria and Western Iraq, who were conquered by the Assyrian king and deported to the territory of the destroyed Israel Kingdom. Having settled down in the new land the newcomers absorbed the natives and adopted their God. They built sanctuary on the Mount Grizim and coexisted quite peacefully with Jews remained in Judea, after being ruined by Babylon.

Jews and Samaritans agree on the fact that the split occurred after the Jews had returned from Babylon. The Samaritan chronics narrate, that "shomronim" requested Nehemiah to allow them to participate in restoration of the new Temple in Jerusalem, but got definite refusal on assertion that they weren't Jews and so couldn't take part in a religious rite. According to the Tanach, Samaritans hindered the creation of the Second Temple by zealous adherence to Mount Grizim, and put obstacles in Nehemiah's work. This infuriated Nehemiah who discharged the Samaritans from the participation in the restoration of the Temple.

Now it's difficult to say which version is accurate. In any case the relationships between the two peoples were spoiled. The gap increased more after Alexander the Great's decision to allow Samaritans to erect their own Temple on the Grizim Mount, and the contradictions aggravated after Hasmonei king Yohanan Girhan had ascended the throne. Arrogant Girhan decided to annihilate "Samaritan's heresy". Having invaded Samaria he devastated it, and to overcome "pagans" completely razed the Grizim Mount Temple to the ground. It was a terrible shock for Samaritans, as not barbarians, but their own Brother, Jewish king, triumphed over the ruins of their sacred Temple!

Henceforth the Temple in Jerusalem became a symbol of lie and heartlessness for Samaritans. They called it not "Beit-Mikdash" but "Beit-mahtash" ("House of Shame"). Their bitterness produced probably the first anti-Jewish calumnies in human history. The slander, which took deep roots in Samaria, said that Jews hid a human skeleton in Jerusalem Temple instead of "aron kodesh" and secretly worshipped it.

Jews weren't better than Samaritans in their prejudices. Greeting Samaritans with jeers, Jews fastidiously turned away, spread rumors, that "shomronim" worshipped ancient pagan god Nergal, and made human sacrifices. It was a typical example of hatred, engendered by religious arrogance and petty cavils. But the price for it turned out to be extremely high.
--- End quote ---

Ari Ben-Canaan:
Thanks Dan, really intriguing stuff!  :)

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