After Sankhariv conquered and exiled the Israelites from the northern kingdom, he repopulated the country with other nations he had previously conquered. According to II Kings chapter 17 these nations accepted upon themselves part of the Israelite religion because of their fear of lions.
“In the end,
GOD removed Israel from the divine presence, as they had been warned through
all God’s servants the prophets. So the Israelites were deported from their
land to Assyria, as is still the case.
The king of Assyria brought [people] from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites; they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its towns. When they first settled there, they did not worship GOD; so GOD sent lions against them that killed some of them (my emphasis-gg).
They said to the king of Assyria: “The nations that you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know the rules of the God of the land; therefore [that God] has let lions loose against them that are killing them—for they do not know the rules of the God of the land.” The king of Assyria gave an order: “Send there one of the priests whom you have deported; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the practices of the God of the land.”
So one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and settled in Bethel; he taught them how to worship GOD. However, each nation continued to make its own gods and to set them up in the cult places that had been made by the people of Samaria; each nation [set them up] in the towns in which it lived. Inhabitants from Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and inhabitants from Cuth made Nergal, and inhabitants from Hamath made Ashima, and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children [as offerings] to Adrammelech and Anamelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
They worshiped GOD, but they also
appointed from their own ranks priests of the shrines, who officiated for them
in the cult places. They worshiped GOD, while serving their own gods according
to the practices of the nations from which they had been deported. To this day,
they follow their former practices. They do not worship GOD [properly]. They do
not follow the laws and practices, the Teaching and Instruction that GOD
enjoined upon the descendants of Jacob—who was given the name Israel—” (II
Kings 17:23- 34)
When the exiled Babylonian Judeans from returned back to Israel with Ezra and Nehemiah, some Samaritans tried different methods to prevent the Israelites from rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem while some priestly families married Samaritans and the Samaritans assimilated into them. Throughout our history sometimes the relationship between the Jews and Samaritans were positive and sometimes there was enmity between them.
The rabbis disagreed what was the halakhic status of the Samaritans. Rabbi Yishmael holds that their conversion was not sincere because they only converted out of fear of those ravaging lions. Consequently, the Samaritans were never Jews. Rabbi Akiva, on the other hand, holds that their conversion was kosher and they are Jews. Because the Samaritans deviated from accepted rabbinic law, their lineage was suspect. A naturally born Jew could not marry them because any Samaritan could be a mamzer.
“And for
what reason did the Sages prohibit them from entering into
the congregation if there is no problem with regard to their conversion or with
regard to the Jews who assimilated among them? It is because they did
not act in accordance with the halakha, as they would perform
levirate marriage with betrothed women. They would perform the mitzva of
levirate marriage only with one who was widowed from a betrothal, and
they would exempt married women from ḥalitza and levirate
marriage. The Gemara elaborates: In what way would they expound
the verse to lead them to this conclusion? The verse states: “The wife of
the dead man shall not be married outside of the family to one not of his kin;
her brother-in-law will have intercourse with her and take her to him to be his
wife, and consummate the levirate marriage” (Deuteronomy 25:5). They understood
the word “outside” to be a description of the woman: She who sits outside,
i.e., one who is only betrothed; she shall not be married to one not of his
kin, and it is with her that the obligation of levirate marriage applies. But
she who is not sitting outside, but who has already married, shall marry
one not of his kin. Consequently, the concern with regard to the Samaritans
is that their descendants include the children of a widow who unlawfully wed
one who was not her brother-in-law.” (Sefaria.org translation)
No comments:
Post a Comment