Sotah 083

נושא: Sotah

BET MIDRASH VIRTUALI

How [are we to understand] the Reading of the King? On the day following the first day of Sukkot, in the eighth year, at the end of the seventh, a wooden platform is erected for him in the courtyard, and he sits upon it. (This is based upon the words of the Torah: "at the end of seven years, at the time". The Overseer would take a Sefer Torah and pass it to the Head of the Assembly, who would pass it to the Deputy, who would pass it to the High Priest, who would hand it to the king. The king would stand to receive it and read from it while seated. King Agrippa stood to receive it and read it while standing and the sages praised him. When he reached "You may not appoint over you someone of foreign extraction" there were tears in his eyes. They said to him, "Do not worry, Agrippa, you are our brother, you are our brother!" He reads from the beginning of "These are the words…" as far as "Hear". [Then he reads] "Hear", "If you listen", "Tithe, you must tithe", "When you complete the tithing", the king's passage, and the blessings and the curses until he finishes that whole section. The same benedictions that the High Priest recites the king [also] recites, except that he mentions the festivals instead of the forgiveness of sin.

Meir Noach has been doing a lot of research into the Samaritans and "'their' book of Joshua, which they do not consider holy," and here I present his findings.

I wrote: The scholarly view is that the Samaritans were the remnants of the population of the former Kingdom of Israel.

Meir comments: There may be a quote from Rabbi Meir that backs this up Midrash [Bereshit Rabba 94] relates about an encounter between Rabbi Meir and a Samaritan. The story that developed includes the following dialogue:

R. Meir asks the Samaritan: What tribe are you from?
The Samaritan answers: From Joseph.
R. Meir : No!
The Samaritan: From which one then?
R. Meir : From Issachar.
The Samaritan: How do you know?
R. Meir: For it is written [Genesis 46:13]: The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Iob, and Shimron. These are the Samaritans (Shimron).

I wrote: The Samaritans hold as sacred only the first six books of the bible and their text of the passage from Deuteronomy quoted above reverses the mountains: the blessings were uttered on Mount Ebal (where they had built their Temple) and the curses on Mount Gerizim.

Meir writes: I was not sure if the Samaritans thought 'their' book of Joshua was sacred or not so I e-mailed them. This is in part what I got back:

Dear Mr. Meir

The last thing and this I don't want to do is to offend any person. This is not the right way to do. So, I will limit myself to the fact:

The Israelite Samaritans believe that the only sacred book is the Torah, Moses Torah which called the Five Books of Moses.
The is not any other sacred book after the five books of Moses.
There is a samaritan chronicle called "The Book of Joshua" but this not a sacred book but of the historical Samaritan chronicles that edited on the 13th A.D. by the Samaritan Community of Egypt and the history mainly from the time of Joshua till the Byzantine Period in the 4th A.D. The introduction to the main historical chronicle of Abu El-Fatch that describes the history from Joshua to the first period of the Moslem Rules [7th-11th centuries A.D.] gives a lot on Joshua period. In short these are non sacred compositions. In some places there are differences between the two descriptions the Jewish Book of Joshua and the Samaritan chronicle.
Gerizim Mountain is the mountain to offer on him the Blessing [See Duet. 29, 11 and Chap. 27,12-13]. In Duet. 27,4 the Jewish Masoratic version the location of God's altar is "In mount Ebal" and in the Samaritan Israelite version is "in Mount Gerizim".

Meir now brings information he gleaned from a web site:

The Samaritan religion is based on four principles of faith, which are the basic beliefs of followers of the religion. These four principles of faith are read by the Samaritan at the beginning of every prayer and they are:

One God – The God of Israel;
One Prophet – Moses Ben Amram;
The Belief in The Torah – the first five books of the bible.
One Holy Place – Mount Gerizim.

I found a great quote in their book of Joshua that has to do with the Sotah:

AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT WAS DONE DURING THE DAYS OF DIVINE FAVOR. (The Samaritans see the period from Jousua to Eli as being a Golden age beyond belief.)

Now the length of this period was two hundred and sixty years. And the well ordered arrangement of the days of Divine favor existed during the days of Jush'a the king, and after him until the termination of this period; as I am about to mention and set forth. And no one of them was able to commit an abomination, such as infidelity and other things of magic. But that it was brought to light, and the doer of the shameful thing, before he was aware would be apprehended, even though he was in the most remote parts of the assigned lands, for this was revealed by the jewels which were on the minister (Kohen Gadol, High Priest). And this minister (Kohen) would make a woman drink of the water of the temple, when her husband had suspicions against her; and if she had indeed been unfaithful to him and had become defiled with some one else, he would curse her; for if she was innocent in this regard, then she would return unharmed; but if she was guilty she was detected and immediately destroyed. And likewise it was that, no one did kill an innocent person, but that his murderer was made known by circumstances which were brought about, and the truth came to light.

Thanks to Meir Noach for this research. You may also be interested in this link.

Click here to return to Sotah archive catalogue.

Click here to access the BMV Home Page, which includes the RMSG archive.

To subscribe to the Rabin Mishnah Study Group email service
click here.

To unsubscribe send an email to nhis address

For information on how to support the Virtual Bet Midrash by making a donation or dedicating a shiur please click here.

Please use nhis address for discussion, queries, comments and requests.