Q&A: Are Samaritans Consistent?
Are Samaritans Consistent?
Question
Hello Rabbi! I am a Samaritan young man, and I went through a great deal before arriving here at the site. I read your booklets, and I have to say that I was very impressed by them. In the fifth booklet, in the transition from deism to theism, your objection to the Karaite concept is: “Karaism does not recognize the giving of an Oral Torah, and in that sense it rejects the tradition about the revelation that bound the two Torahs (the Written and the Oral) together. Therefore here too, if we are dealing with tradition, one who picks and chooses between its different parts bears the burden of proof.” True, I am not a Karaite, Heaven forbid, but I too oppose your “Oral Torah.” So it is important to me that you know that the burden of proof is not on me, since I have no tradition about your Oral Torah. Beyond that, I have very good reasons to think that the Samaritans are the ones who are right. We were never exiled, while you sinned and were exiled, and therefore our tradition was also preserved better than yours. We have an ancient Torah scroll written by Avisha, a great-grandson of Aaron the Priest, and it contains our version, which has been preserved exactly the same until today. Carbon testing showed that this Torah scroll is indeed very, very ancient, roughly two hundred years after the generation of Avisha, but in my opinion there are several problems with the test that pushed the date forward for no reason, and this is not the place to go on at length. In any case, I would be glad to know whether, in your view, I am operating consistently. If so—what are the implications of that with respect to postmodernism? And shouldn’t you join us, since we are more consistent than your “Judaism”?
Answer
Hello Yossi.
I do not know what you mean by saying that you went through a lot before arriving at this site. Do you mean that it didn’t happen immediately when you were born?
To my shame, I do not know enough about the Samaritans and the Karaites (and I don’t even know exactly what the differences are between them).
The fact that you did not receive the tradition of an Oral Torah does not mean that the burden of proof is not on you. I did receive such a tradition, and in my tradition it is also accepted that absence of evidence is not evidence.
Since I do not know you, nor the tradition within which you operate, it is hard for me to judge whether you are acting consistently, but if you do what you think, then apparently yes. What does this have to do with postmodernism?
Discussion on Answer
Each person is supposed to use his common sense and decide according to the best of his understanding.
The question why the Holy One, blessed be He, does not show us who is right can be asked about every dispute in the world, including moral disputes, disputes with Hindus, or Christians, etc. That you have to ask Him. Apparently He wants us to make decisions, rather than programming us to do what is right.
I think that in this matter it is impossible to detach the debate from the narrow, almost nonexistent reality of the Samaritan and Karaite communities, as compared with the fruitful dynamism of traditional Judaism. True, we accept that values cannot be derived from facts, but in our case, since the Torah sees itself as life (“and choose life”), the question of the correct Torah tradition cannot be separated from the question of the Torah’s vitality. And in this case there is no comparison at all between the narrow Samaritan tradition, which makes do with the Five Books of Moses and the book of Joshua, and the somewhat broader Karaite tradition, which includes the whole Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) but without an Oral Torah, and the accepted Jewish tradition. The ordinary Jewish tradition is far more fruitful, dynamic, challenging, and stimulating than the alternatives that tried to present themselves against it. Starting with the books of Prophecy and the Writings, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes—which despite Rabbi Michi’s disparagement expanded the basic discussion of the Written Torah—and continuing with midrashim, the analytic study of the Written Torah and the Oral Torah, the spiritual intuitions of the books of Kabbalah, and more. All this literature created an enormous spiritual power that only keeps growing. True, traditional Judaism also did not have an easy time during the long exile, and it too did not always go in rational directions, but the very discussion, ideas, thoughts, and activity are things that have no parallel at all in those competing historical traditions, however internally consistent they may seem. So it is not a proof, but it is a sign of a living Torah that does not exist in those dried-up traditions.
To Y.D.
What does fertility of thought have to do with factual truth? Does the fact that our rabbinic literature is more extensive prove the truth of the Oral Torah? Does an “enormous spiritual power that only keeps growing” prove that all the things that were said and/or written are really the will of God? Haven’t we found in our own generation “sages” who speak from the imaginings of their own hearts?
I agree with every word. Beyond that, there is no connection at all between the ‘fruitful Judaism’ you present and ancient Israel from the days of Eli the High Priest.
Yossi, why does scholarship assume, as far as I know, that the Samaritan Pentateuch is not the earlier one?
You received by tradition that there is an Oral Torah, even though according to what I was taught that is your Pharisaic late invention. We heard only one Torah at Sinai, and in our tenth commandment it says that one must build a Temple on Mount Gerizim. How are you and I supposed to know what the truth is? We both have traditions (although it seems to me that mine is much better grounded); does that mean that we are both right? And if not, then why did God not show us who is right? Does He want to play games with us so that we won’t know what He wants?