Early morning I drove to Har Bracha to one of my projects, The road was full of policemen and soldiers. Today is the Samaritan's Pessach and the ceremony of sacrifice. Many tourist autobuses. I had no time to stay and watch the ceremony. The Samaritans are our doppelganger and their temple on Har Abal once disputed the legitimacy of our Jerusalem Temple. The Samaritan High Priest claims direct descendance from Aaron and genetics seem to validate that claim. We Jews have no High Priest but there is movement to rebuild the Temple and re-institute Temple sacrifices as described in the Bible The Shomron is beautiful, full of wild flowers and the air perfumed. Far away one could see a column of smoke raising from the mountain, it may be the Samaritan priests preparing the sacrifice. Below the twin minarets of Hawara village's mosque.
11 comments:
So the Samaritans never lost their Temple or Cohen Gadol and they are a small insignificant tribal people. The Jews lost theirs and we occupy a central place in history and Western culture (for better or worse). Maybe we can rebuild our temple and go back to being a simple people who slaughter goats but I doubt it.
K
Genetics do not validate the claim that the Samaritan High Priest descends from Aaron. Aaron's Y-chromosome is not known because he was never tested (of course). No one living has an indisputably proven, as opposed to mythologized or religiously sanctioned, line of descent from him. It is not definitively the case even in ancient times that all of the priests actually descended from him, so indisputable lines of descent will never be proven. If the Samaritan High Priest possesses the CMH (Cohen Modal Haplotype), it only suggests that he shares patrilineal descent with other people who claim descent from the Cohens. However, the CMH is found at low rates in ordinary Jews who do not claim such descent. It is also found at low rates in non-Jewish populations. To make matters more complicated, the CMH is a "motif" that is found in Y chromosomes from haplogroups J1 and J2 (the two sub-branches of Y-chromosome haplogroup J that split around 10-15k years ago by some estimates). Does that mean there were two Aaron priestly progenitors?
CMH found in ordinary Jews - cases of "non-paternity" perhaps. The Yisroel husband from whom the son takes his identity is not the father - the real father is a Cohen. Same for non-Jews. Cohen tossing in the hay with a village girl.
It is quite probable that there may be more than 1 priestly progenitor. The bible says that all Jews are descended from Abraham and that all men are descended from Adam. It's a book of myth, not a genetics textbook. The difference is that Bible myths all have a moral to them while the pagan myths were mostly just soap opera or "just so" stories.
K
That's my point, K. The Bible is a book of myth, and therefore, the Samaritan High Priest's claim of descent from Aaron should be taken cum grano salis. The genetics does not prove it.
Maybe not Aaron's descendant, but the odds are he is a real Cohen.
K
You will not believe it, but lots of people here dream of rebuilding the Temple and go back to slaughtering goats. They feel we have been missing something important for thousands of years. And they are breeding back reddish cows to produce the red heifer.
J,
If the fanatic Temple rebuilders disturb the al-Aqsa mosque to do it, they will, almost without doubt, provoke a regional war. On top of that, restoration of the bloody sacrificial cult will give Judaism a savage, primitive air that will nauseate non-Orthodox Jews around the world. I can see an even wider divide between American Jews and Israel, at a time when Israel would need American Jews' support the most.
On the other hand, I am sure that the re-organization of the Temple with its High Priests etc. and the reinstitution of Temple sacrifices will make a tremendous impression on the world's Muslims and Christians. No Disneyland nor any religious-tourist attraction can compete with it.
I suspect that the European Christians would call for sanctions against Israel due to animal cruelty.
K,
If he is a real Kohan, by definition he is a descendant of Aaron (and has some other things which could be said about his descent, btw.)
Did you read the genetics points, B? The genetics does not support the traditional religious doctrine of descent from Aaron. Aaron's existence itself cannot be proven.
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