ha-Torah

The Samaritan community's culture and religion is unique in the world. The Samaritans share an origin with Jews, but the two peoples diverged thousands of years ago, already in Biblical times. The main schism between the cultures is the location of the Holy Temple, the "place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name." To the Jews, this meant Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. The Samaritans looked to God's designation as a place of holiness and sacrifice in the book of Deuteronomy (11:29), and understood the designated site to be Mount Gerizim in Samaria, near the city of Shechem.…