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The SabbathThe Sabbath is the most sacred day to the Samaritans, even more so than Yom Kippur. On the Sabbath, Samaritans seize from all work and avoid operating any electric devices, cooking, driving or lighting fires. Approximately half an hour prior to the start of the Sabbath on Friday eve, while the women are busy with cooking and last preparations for the Sabbath, the men gather at the Samaritan synagogue located at the hart of their neighborhoods, both in Hulon and on Mt. Grizim.
On the Sabbath, Samaritans do not wear pants and t-shirts as they tend to do the rest of the week. Instead, the blue jeans and the t-shirts are replaced by striped shirts (coats of many colors) identical to the one made by Jacob to his favorite son-Joseph. On working days, Samaritans do not put on Yamakas (Jewish traditional headgear) as it is not required by any scripture, though inside the synagogue everybody wears headgear of some sort (usually a tarbush) and the priests (Cohanim) wear special derbies (see picture). The Samaritans wear headgear inside the synagogue in respect of whom they are standing before and watched over from above.
The Samaritans Traditional Dressing on Sabbath
Samaritan women do not attend praying services at the synagogue, though they are not prohibited from doing that. Any woman desiring to enter the synagogue is welcome to do as she pleases, yet it is not accustomed for women to arrive at the synagogue on any day apart from Yom Kippur and other holidays. When they do come, they are not shoved in women's galleries like it is accustomed in Jewish orthodox synagogues. Women are allowed to pray among the men but in practice, such sights can only be observed on Yom Kippur. Samaritan women have no special sabbatical outfits like the men do. Not wearing pants on Sabbath, dresses or short skirts constitute their major sabbatical decorative items.
Samaritans tend to take off their shoes upon walking inside a synagogue which they consider to be a holy place. This custom was originated in the famous biblical decree: "And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). The synagogue does not contain any pictures nor chairs or tables. In fact it has but walls and a wall to wall carpet. Samaritans pray both in a standing and a sitting position, depends on the section of the prayer. In-between the standing sections, Samaritans bow to the east (Mt. Grizim), this action was also originated in Moses' reaction upon facing god: "And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped."(Exodus 34:8)
Samaritans tend to take off their shoes
During prayer time, the congregation's high priest and cantor are standing at the front of the synagogue. Facing the crowd, they guide the prayer and bless the worshipers, waving Pentateuch in their hands. During the ceremony, white praying shawls cover the worshipers' striped shirts to disguise any social gap between the men, as everybody is equal in the lord's eyes.
On the Sabbath day, Samaritans attend four prayer services- Friday eve, Saturday morning, noon and evening. The Morning Prayer begins even before daybreak. Already at 3:00 a clock in the morning, one may find the synagogue buzzing with the activity of worshipers that awoke from their sleep to worship god. At the end of that ceremony, around 6:00 A.M, families gather for a reading of the weekly Torah portion in the ancient Hebrew language. (This is also the case with the Samaritan prayer sessions)
On Friday eve, with the conclusion of the Friday Prayers, families sit around their sabbatical tables- Friday cooking, fresh and warm food with a wide variety of flavors: Chicken and other meet, rice, potatoes, etc. On the next morning though, Samaritans will not cook even with a use of a sabbatical plate. They would only eat cold food from the night before. On the Saturday morning table one will find a particularly rich variety of homemade first class salads, made purely from vegetables. Unfortunately, it would be impossible in the current section to name and elaborate the wide variety of salads decorating the Samaritan table.
Samaritans preserve the Sabbath to the letter, yet when lives are at stake, they do not hesitate to call emergency services or even drive their privet cars to the nearest hospital. |
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