The Samaria Regional Council invites you to come and see Passover up close as you have never seen it before, at the Pascal sacrifice celebrations of the Samaritan community.
The celebration will take place on the Jewish “Second Passover,” Iyar 14, which this year falls on Sunday, April 29. The holiday, “Pesach Sheni,” occurs every year exactly one month after the seder night, and was prescribed by the Torah for Jews who could not for a variety of reasons bring the Pascal sacrifice on the eve of Pasover. Some Chasidic Jews conduct a seder resembling the Passover seder on this day.
The Samaritan community, which lives in Samaria and in the Israeli city of Holon, conduct their Passover festival on its initial date, Nissan 14, as well as a month later, on Iyar 14.
It should be noted that according to Jewish law there is no religious validity to the Samaritan ceremonies, since their laws and customs have been intentionally altered to center their practices at Mt. Gerizim and not the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. If a Jew chooses to attend the Samaritan Pascal sacrifice, they should do it as a tourist and out of curiosity, and not, God forbid, out of a religious sentiment.
Religious sentimentalism is more like it. The Samaritans gather around the altar, dressed in white, and listen to their High Priest reading verses from their version of the Torah describing the Pascal sacrifice. Then the signal is given the lambs are slaughtered and the process of preparing them to be roasted whole begins.
Every family sacrifices its own lamb, and the firstborn sons mark their foreheads with their blood, as a reminder of the events of the Biblical Passover, on the night of the plague of the firstborn, when the Israelites departed from Egypt.
Curious? Well, this coming Sunday, April 29, 2018, the Samaria Regional Council, in a special project run by Council Member Rafi Avital, will provide public transportation to the ceremony, free of charge. the shuttles will be leaving the parking lot adjacent to Bahad 3 circle at the entrance of the Samaritan neighborhood, between 5:30 and 11:30 PM.
For help call 1-700-700-106
Bring a sandwich.