Which Paschal Sacrifice Ceremony You Attending?

Are you upset about the Paschal Sacrifice exercise today near the Temple Mount?

Let's get things straight.

It already was advertised provocatively, last year:

In First, Far-right Jews Sacrifice Lamb Near Temple MountFor the first time the group was allowed to hold the ceremony just a few hundred meters from the Mount which is administered by a Muslim religious trust

And if you are upset with all the blood, and fire and barbecuing as expressions of primitive religious fanaticism (as if Israel's Independence Day "mangal" festival upsets you), relax.

You can attend a similar event without the tension on April 29th.

Same lamb (multiple actually). Same blood and fire. And even Haaretz deals sympathetically with the issue.

The Samaritan Paschal Sacrifice on Mount Gerizim.

UPDATE
I was reminded by Arnon Segal that this August 21 begins the Id Al-Adha Muslim holiday of the sacrifice

Muslims around the globe will be celebrating “Eid al-Adha” by offering an animal (a sheep, goat or cow) for slaughtering, to commemorate “Abraham’s ultimate willingness to sacrifice.” Muslims are reminded to understand the virtue of true sacrifice beyond the ceremonial slaughtering of the animal. 

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Passover Sacrifice Exercise

This year, as in the past few years, despite problems in those years, a Paschal Sacrifice will be reenacted, as an exercise tomorrow, Thursday.  The money has been raised.

Here's a video explanation:

And here is the poster:

Now, some people might presume this either an outmoded or barbaric procedure.

Of course, barbecues are okay.

And the Samaritan ceremony is attended by hundreds of interested onlookers because that event is, well, folklorish.

Here are two pictures of what went on on Mount Gerizim over a century ago:

If you are a vegetarian, I guess your dislike is understandable.

But if not, just consider this as another practice for anthropological study.

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Samaritan Paschal Sacrifice

The Paschal Sacrifice of the Shomronim. Here.

No blood.


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So, A "Holy Mountain" Is An Okay Thing

The Temple Mount as the foremost primary Jewish holy site is a concept the world's press has a problem accepting as a given.

So, my eyes lit up when I saw this headline:-

Visiting the Samaritans on their holy West Bank mountain

What is the story's thrust?

Samaritan High Priest Abdel Moin Sadaqa was relaxing on his porch watching Al-Jazeera on a wide-screen TV when we dropped by his home to talk about his ancient religion. “I like to keep up with the news,” the 83-year-old head of one of the world’s oldest and smallest religions explained as he turned down the volume.

And what is that religion?

The museum looked like a treasure trove of ancient Judaica, but Kohen made sure to point out the differences between Samaritanism and Judaism. “We are Israelites but not Jewish … we have 7,000 differences between our Torah and the Jewish one,” he declared as he showed a copy of a Samaritan scroll he said was the oldest book in the world.

but

While most of Samaritanism’s outside brides have been Jews from Israel, Kohen said three were Muslims and five Christians like Shura. All of them came from far away — the Muslims from Turkey and the Christians from Russia and Ukraine. Seeking converts among the local Muslim majority or the tiny Christian minority in Nablus could strain the good relations the Samaritans have with their neighbours.

Who are these religionists?

the descendants of the biblical Samaritans

A 52 minute clip was produced commercially (here) on the 'New Samaritans' - and the transcript is there - and a short YouTube promo here, although pay attention, they're speaking in...Hebrew.

Just in case you are wondering

The Samaritans are a religious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, a parallel but separate religion to Judaism or any of its historical forms. Based on the Samaritan Torah, Samaritans claim their worship is the true religion of the ancient Israelites prior to the Babylonian Exile, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by the exiled returnees.

...In the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Judaism, their claim of ancestral origin is disputed, and in those texts they are called Kuthim (Hebrew: כותים‎), allegedly from the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. Modern genetics has suggested some truth to both the claims of the Samaritans and Jewish accounts in the Talmud.

But going back to my opening point, I guess if you are not exactly Jewish and even a bit unique and fanciful, you're allowed a "holy mountain".

"It was probably like this in the time of the temple"

West Bank Samaritans mark Passover with blood and fire

MOUNT GERIZIM, West Bank (AFP) — Men chant in ancient Hebrew over the sheep, their white garments and knives lit by the fading dusk as they ready a sacrifice for the God of Israel in the heart of the West Bank.

The voice of the high priest crackles from a megaphone, the chanting reaches a climax and they wrestle dozens of animals to the ground, slitting their throats in a 5,000 year-old Passover ritual that may predate Judaism.

The faithful are Samaritans, a community of 710 people living in Israel and the occupied West Bank who trace their lineage to the ancient Israelites Moses led out of Egypt, an event they remember every year on a grassy hilltop near the Palestinian town of Nablus.

...As the men skin the carcasses and sprinkle them with salt, others light bonfires in sunken cauldrons, flames licking at the darkening sky as wood smoke and burning entrails mingle with the cool spring air.

The Samaritans believe they are the inheritors of the religion of Moses as laid down in the Torah, that the God of Abraham lives on Mount Gerizim, and that they can be modern ambassadors of peace in a troubled region.

...Those who have come to view the ceremony -- Christians, Muslims, and Jews -- look on with a mixture of horror and wonder at the ancient wellspring of their three faiths, a primordial sacrifice on a holy mountain.

"It was probably like this in the time of the temple," says Yigal Kann...