Samaritans Living in Israel as the Ancient Minority | FULL EPISODE | Insights on TBN Israel

let's start all the way at the beginning who are the samaritans we are on top of mount grizim which is the holy mountain for the samaritan it is also significant for jews and christians we keep the oldest bobby we keep the oldest language we keep our custom and we have everything original we really try to build a good connection with the jewish people because we believe we do share the same faith in the same origins and we have the same goal to live peacefully in the land of our fathers [Music] we all know the story of the samaritans in the new testament yeshua brings the story of the good samaritan when he talks about love your neighbor as yourself he knew the debate in the jewish mind about who is your neighbor and yeshua comes and he takes the commandment and he elevates the commandment to a very high level and then he tells them the story of the good samaritan in order to show that we need to love our enemy because at that time the samaritan would consider a religious enemy to the jewish people and then he asked them and you all know the story and he says so who is your neighbor and yeshua says you're commanded to love those that you consider as enemy meeting the samaritans today two thousand years later gives us a peek into history a peek into an ancient language into an ancient people understanding the whole concept of sacrifices let us watch together the samaritans it's easy to forget just how diverse israel actually is anyone you pass by on the street could be from an ethnicity or people group you might have never even heard about and some of these people go back thousands upon thousands of years we have jews and arabs and christians and maronites and assyrian christians we have just so many people groups in this land and one of the most amazing and incredible and interesting groups are the samaritans their story is nothing short of incredible christians are familiar with the term the good samaritan christians don't always realize that the samaritan people who are mentioned in the bible they're real people they're real people [Music] when i say i'm a samaritan i think it's something exciting for someone to hear the jewish people the samaritan people historically there's only a handful of the nations that still exist and maintain any kind of semblance of identity the most important point of the theological dispute between the jews and the samaritans is the location of the holy mountain the samaritans today are only 850 individual people which is so tiny we have this mission really to keep this link alive that we've almost just almost lost the jews claim that samaritans are newcomers and they only arrived here 2 600 years ago only yeah only that's still a very long time ago they've been observing the israelite tradition for 2 600 years so they are an israelite people [Music] the majority of the stories of the bible took place in what we call today judea and samaria if you think about sort of the map of the state of israel you have on the west the coastal area where the big cities are today on the east the jordan valley and all that mountainous and sort of really rugged terrain that's judea and samaria that's the heartland of the people of israel and up on the northern part of samaria is where the samaritan's mount cuisine sits this is the holiest of sites for the samaritan community and it's one of the most well recognized places of worship in samaria at mount girizim i met with david an israeli tour guide with a deep understanding of ancient peoples especially those found in the holy land israel is a amazing society israel is the only jewish state in the world in the only country in the world that has a jewish majority but in israel we have many minorities the samaritans are a tiny nation they consider themselves israelites descendants of the northern kingdom of israel whereas the jews consider ourselves descendants of the southern kingdom of judea a thousand years ago there were a million and a half samaritans in this region and a hundred years ago there were less than 150 samaritans today there are 850 the community is actually growing and thriving today but it is a miracle that they have succeeded in their surviving many wars and conquests that have taken place in this region and have maintained their culture and their faith that is a truly truly amazing this one tiny minority outlasts everyone else they outlasted the jewish population for much of history the arabs who came and went the christians who came and went the only ones who really remained here when do the samaritans date back to that's where the dispute between the jewish narrative and the samaritan narrative begins the samaritans are a semitic people that practice a religion very similar to judaism and they've maintained this practice in the holy land for thousands of years and their sacred language is an ancient form of hebrew according to samaritan tradition the israelites originally built a tabernacle on mount grizim in the north of israel then king solomon built the temple in jerusalem and israel split into two kingdoms the southern kingdom in judea with jerusalem as its capital and the northern kingdom will shechem or nablus as its capital the southern kingdom eventually became what we know as the jewish people today while the northern kingdom became the lost tribes of israel cut off from the rest of their people the samaritans say that they are the descendants of this northern kingdom that never really stopped worshiping on mount gezim but if you ask orthodox judaism for their version of events the story is slightly different so what are we looking at what is the significance of this place this is really where the tabernacle of the samaritans was built what we believed 3650 years ago we believe that joshua came here and built it this is really the holiest point for the samaritans i had the privilege of exploring mount golism with a bootcoin he comes from the samaritan priestly tribe and has become one of the go-to guides between his people and the outside world but he also represents the next generation of samaritans on mount kuzim so when you're born as a samaritan the community raises you since when you are five or three years old to even start speaking ancient hebrew so when you're five years or six years old you might finish reading the torah by the age of eight you already can do the bar mitzvah here you wait your belmitsu is not age dependent it's not age dependent by the way samaritan does means well we say shomrim right which means keepers we do believe that we are keeping what our ancestors have kept and what their ancestors have kept the samaritans give us a glimpse into our past in many ways they are a living testament to the ancient history of the jewish and the samaritan people here in the land and that's what's so unique about their story that like many other people here in the middle east you look at them and you can see the living testament of thousands of years of history and heritage and tradition and that's why our connection to them is so meaningful because we come from the same source and the same route here in this land the samaritans on mount lysium live in a village next to their holy mountain and just a short ride from nablus in the palestinian territories abu invited me to join him at their synagogue where i also met yephit a samaritan priest and the brother of the high priest hello hello what a beautiful place [Music] the summer times we read like this royal shema samaritan religious customs are a throwback to judaism's past helping us understand what jewish practice may have looked and sounded like thousands of years ago what happens in this place like what what is what are the prayers please we pray art and the ground why because this is in from prophet of modes all the israelites we pray on the ground this is how samaritans pray and it's actually how we as jews used to pray in the synagogue there are specific points in the jewish prayer book where we are called to bow like the samaritans still do today i think that's what's special about the samaritans is that you've never had to live as a small group outside of the country you were always inside of the community so the tradition always stayed the same you never were small minorities surrounded by enemies and you can tell because you don't have to be afraid of the tradition you have to hide you didn't have to change the similarities between jews and samaritans are astounding it's not hard to believe that we were once one people worshipping the same god on different mountains but this still does not resolve the question of if the samaritans are part of the jewish people do you define yourself jewish or related to the jewish people or is it a separate identity that is disconnected we believe that we are remnants of the ancient israelites who entered the holy land 3 600 years ago there were no samaritans and there was no jews there was nothing called samaritans but after 450 years there was a split maybe you heard about the kingdom of judah and samaria right yeah and the kingdom of samaria was also called the kingdom of israel and we believe we were part of the kingdom of israel it's a common question that we get asked are you israelis why are you palestinians and the truth is we are neither and we are both at the same time it's more complicated than people think technically we do have the palestinian and the israeli id so what i like to say is that we are really kind of a link between both nations i think we have a unique perspective of being able to see both really easily the samaritans are in a tough spot abut's community on mount grizin sits in disputed territory between the israelis and palestinians the other community of samaritans lives within israel proper just outside of tel aviv and their identity is much more closely tied to the israeli people i went there to visit minashi to see how they manage the complexities of being both israeli and samaritan [Music] [Music] is a blessing from deuteronomy that god commanded us to hang on the doorposts of our house today jewish mezuzas are small and hidden inside the doorpost likely a result of years of persecution and keeping a low profile in the diaspora but the samaritan mezuzah is large and prominently placed perhaps the jewish mezuzah would still look the same if we never had to hide our identity [Music] a proud samaritan and israeli served in the idf for 40 years throughout the years and still today he's always made time to teach ancient hebrew to the next generation [Music] this is how he helps preserve the heritage of his people israel what does it mean to be israeli are you first samaritan or samaritan israeli how do you look at it first i'm a samaritan then israeli and do you feel the two identities collide or combine well yeah i don't think there's any difference for me samaritan is a part of the israeli people the jewish people are like my brothers what is your interaction when you tell people when you look israeli if such a thing existed you look like anyone else on the street when you tell people i'm samaritan what is the response first they'd looking at me and asked you don't look uh much different than i don't see the the beard where is the hat where is the jacket we have some people eventually so it's a natural connection the samaritans have always been an anomaly both throughout history and still today i want to ask you your personal opinion what do you think about the samaritans so here we see two narratives that do not connect the samaritans say we are israelites we entered the land with joshua and then you have a jewish rabbinical narrative saying no you guys are newcomers you're not real jews and if you ask me i think that the scholarly narrative the third narrative is that it's somewhere in between [Music] it seems as if god has chosen to bless the samaritans and sustain them in this land for thousands of years their history and strong bond with the jewish people makes them simultaneously a relic of the past a modern miracle and an important part of israel's future the values are the same the beliefs are the same we really have a really strong connection with the jewish people even in our prayers we have this small prayer to reunite the jewish people from all over the world come to the holy land well in ancient hebrew we say israel you know sometimes the jews speak about seeking the lost tribes of israel so the samaritans they're tiny people but they're they're here and they're raising their hand and they're saying hey what about we're not lost we're here [Music] [Music] one thing you might not expect the samaritan community to be known for is tahini or sesame paste in hebrew we say trina trina is a food staple that's found in many middle eastern dishes and one of israel's most famous trainer brands comes from none other than the samaritan community on naomi yaakov we're standing here overlooking nabla's shrimp right next to you yeah while i was on mount kuzim i took a trip to visit yaakov coin the owner of the hau bracha trina the mountain of blessing is known throughout israel and also internationally to be this very unique flavor we begin to produce in 12 years 400 kilos only and our dream was to produce 2 000 kilos per day birthday today we produced 10 subs so aside from making excellent trina your baha mountain of blessing is also known for being a unique place where you sort of are this little piece microcosmos in the factory so in this factory you can find small factory let's say israeli people palestinian beaver samaritan people and someone who give the kosher from one settlement i tell all the world come to see how we live with each other work which is other and eat with each other yeah so we have a small beast in a small factory here jakov took me around his factory and i got to see how he makes his famous trina nice hat while bringing israelis and palestinians together under one roof we want to see this how it looks so this is a slow roast no machine can get from here only a human but his hand can know it what's your name yeah what are you making here mixing sim and water and soul what do you think about the fact that you work with arabs samaritans jews in one place it's beautiful really beautiful now that i saw the inner workings of the factory it was time to taste the trina behind [Music] wow that is amazing creating a space where jews muslims christians and samaritans can work together in harmony is a big part of yaokov's vision i thought you have a small beast here and you can see her by three languages and he's received some pretty impressive recognition for his efforts you have prizes and awards that have flags from different countries but specifically palestinian and israeli you don't see many businesses anywhere that have awards from the palestinian authority and at the same time you have what is at the military academy yeah the israeli military academy the police and you know multiple government agencies so it just shows how much the business connects people so then there's something also very interesting yeah this is quite an award so i'll just translate what it says yeah this is the forbes award for it's called small giants for the small businesses they make a big change and the hubble hotrina yeah that's a great pride i think what's beautiful is is that everything connects so it's not only a good product but on top of that you're connecting communities and people you know you're really making a difference it's not just another business it's something that's doing something meaningful and bringing some true change to the world yeah if that gives you a feedback a good feedback that would do something good for the world for your community for your country so we are here small change but i hope to be a big giant in the future big giant to make something good for the world [Music] shalom with us today is from the israeli minister of foreign affairs shalom sharon and welcome to our show shalom you have a very unique job at the ministry of foreign affairs can you tell us about it i think i have the best job in the best job okay so it's not only unique the ministry of foreign affairs i am the director of the department for world religions israel has many minorities of course so here in the holy land we have 9.3 million inhabitants 75 of them are jews about 1.8 million are muslims and among them you have different groups and then you have about a 170 000 christians and we are blessed to have this abundance of faiths and religions and they enrich our life they reach our culture when you look at the state of minorities in neighboring countries they're oppressed they are persecuted when you compare israel you realize that the freedom of religion and freedom of washing that it is committed to is something that one should not take for granted and i have to say that this commitment started from the minute of the creation of the state of israel when our first prime minister david ben-gurion read the declaration of the establishment of the state of israel the first thing that he said is that israel is committed to provide freedom of religion freedom of worship to all its inhabitants regardless of their faith regardless of their religious background regardless of their background in general when we look in on bethlehem the number of christian people is dropping and dropping and dropping and here the christian communities are flourishing thank god for that yes so as you said when you look around us when you look for example at the demographics of bethlehem jesus was born in bethlehem it used to be 85 percent christian today the numbers talk about 15 and we know that when you look at the numbers here in israel the christian minority they are the best well-to-do sector here in israel more than the jewish sector more than the muslim sector and others sean this episode has to do with the samaritan we're talking about the samaritans i'd love to know how the state of israel sees them and you in your role what's your relationship with the samaritan people they are such an interesting religious group you know they're very ancient people and we read also in the new testament about the good samaritan and they have been here since time in memorial right me myself i was blessed to join them in some of their ancient ceremonies and really i want to invite all our viewers to come during shavuot pentecost to see their pilgrimage to mount gerizim they read in the bible and it's beautiful it's really beautiful you're born here in the land you have a very unique job you have something special you want to tell our viewers around the world something as an israeli that they should come and visit the holy land and they should see first of all this beautiful fascinating mosaic of people from different faiths and from different backgrounds when you come here and when you read scripture you see all the comments from leviticus that tell us that we have to love our neighbors as we love ourselves you see them materialize in front of your own eyes sharon thank you very much thank you my pleasure and to you our friends once again thank you from jerusalem thank you for joining us as we provide a spiritual insight of what god is doing in israel and in the middle east if you want to learn more about what god is doing in israel make sure to visit us on our webpage and follow us on social media shalom and god bless you for jerusalem [Music]

Channel: TBN Israel

Views: 262,577

Keywords: israel, minority, israeli, samaritan culture, the good samaritan, ancient culture, samaritan woman, samaritans idles, Israelis & Samaritans, Religious Minority in Israel, religion, religious minority, life in israel, living in israel, Ancient Minority, samaritan, samaritans, israeli culture, israeli culture documentary, samaritan revival, minorities, samaritan history, tbn, tbn israel, insights, israel and the middle east, ancient hebrew, ancient hebrew alphabet, diversity, jew, jewish

Id: VYW1yBROLxA

Length: 23min 4sec (1384 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 07 2022