Who are the Samaritans? TB Eruvin 37

Today’s daf TB Eruvin 37 continues to clarify which tanna subscribes to breirah, a person can retroactively make a halakhic decision, and which tanna doesn’t. One case deals with a Samaritan. Teruma and ma’aser, the tithes given to Kohanim and Levites must be separated before the Israelite can partake of the remainder. The Samaritans were known not to observe these laws of tithing at all. “One who buys wine from among the Samaritans [Kutim], who do not tithe their produce properly, may say: Two log of the hundred log present here, which I will separate in the future, when I have finished drinking, shall be the great teruma given to a priest; ten log shall be first tithe; and nine log, which are a tenth of the remaining ninety log, shall be second tithe. He then redeems the second-tithe with money because in its sanctified state second tithe may only be consumed in Jerusalem, and he may then immediately drink the wine, and the wine remaining at the end will be teruma and tithes. One may rely on the principle of retroactive designation and say that when he is finished drinking, the wine that is left becomes retroactively designated as teruma and tithes, such that the wine he drank was permitted for consumption. This is the statement of Rabbi Meir. However, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yosei, and Rabbi Shimon prohibit drinking the wine in this manner. Therefore, it would appear that Rabbi Yehuda rejects the principle of retroactive designation, contrary to the ruling of the mishna and in accordance with the opinion of Ayo.” (Sefaria.org translation)

Who are the Samaritans? “The Encyclopaedia Judaica (under "Samaritans") summarizes both past and present views on the Samaritans' origins. It says:

Until the middle of the 20th century it was customary to believe that the Samaritans originated from a mixture of the people living in Samaria and other peoples at the time of the conquest of Samaria by Assyria (722–721 BCE). The biblical account in II Kings 17 had long been the decisive source for the formulation of historical accounts of Samaritan origins. Reconsideration of this passage, however, has led to more attention being paid to the Chronicles of the Samaritans themselves. With the publication of Chronicle II (Sefer ha-Yamim), the fullest Samaritan version of their own history became available: the chronicles, and a variety of non-Samaritan materials. According to the former, the Samaritans are the direct descendants of the Joseph tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and until the 17th century CE they possessed a high priesthood descending directly from Aaron through Eleazar and Phinehas. They claim to have continuously occupied their ancient territory and to have been at peace with other Israelite tribes until the time when Eli disrupted the Northern cult by moving from Shechem to Shiloh and attracting some northern Israelites to his new followers there. For the Samaritans, this was the "schism" par excellence.

— "Samaritans" in Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, Volume 14, col. 727.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans)

The Samaritans still exist. There are two Samaritan communities. One community is in Israel where most of the Samaritans live in the city of Holon. They number 415 souls. The other community is in the West Bank upon Mount Gerizim, which they hold holy like we hold the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. They number 381 souls. The Samaritans followed their understanding of the Torah and reject the oral law. Because they reject the oral law, they still observe Passover with the Passover sacrifice of a lamb.

Because their Passover does not coincide with our Passover, I was able to see their priests prepare the lambs for the sacrifice when I was a rabbinical student studying in Israel back in the spring of 1975. The lambs were slaughtered, fleeced, and the internal organs were removed. A gigantic skewer went through entire lamb. There were deep fire pits where the fire leapt up at least 10 feet into the air. I left before the roasting of the lamb but I can imagine that the skewer was lowered into the pit to roast the sacrifice as per the commandment found in Exodus. At the appropriate time they ate their Passover meal with matzah and the Passover sacrifice. Somewhere I have slides of this Passover sacrifice. Maybe one day when I locate them, I can digitize them to share with you since nobody uses a slide projector anymore.