The Samaritans living on Mount Jerzim or Mount Altor in Nablus province in the West Bank represent the oldest and smallest living religious community in the world linked to a strict doctrine.
This community is part of the social fabric of the Palestinian society and the essence of their ideology focuses on the holiness of Mount Jerzim.
The Samaritans believe that they came to Palestine more than 3600 years ago to live in Mount Jerzim where Prophet Moses ordered them in his 10th commandment to protect the Mount because it is a holy one. He also ordered them to worship God on the top of the Mount being a holy place three times a year.
Saturday is a holy day in the Samaritan religion where they stop practicing all manifestations of the worldly life.
The Samaritans a small Palestinian community of several hundred people are divided between the cities of Nablus and Holon and believe that the temple on the top of Mount Jerzim is the first temple built by Joshua Ben Nun in the Holy Land.
Mount Jerzim has been a holy mountain for the Samaritans for thousands of years. It is 886 meters above the sea level. The mountain consists of three peaks: the main top the western wide and flat hill and the top of the hill to the north.
It was traditionally known as the Holy Mount where the heavenly laws were revealed a rival belief of the followers of the Temple of Jerusalem. At the top of the Mount there is a rock that the Samaritans believe to be the place where Moses was and another rock that they believe the place where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac.
The Samaritan religion focuses on five pillars: the oneness of God the prophecy of Moses and the holy law of the Torah the five books of Moses (Genesis Exodus Levites Numbers and Deuteronomy) and the sanctity of Mount Jerzim and the Day of Judgement.
Samaritans celebrate a number of seasonal holidays including Easter which falls at sunset on the 14th of the first month of the Hebrew year according to the Samaritan Hebrew calendar and Eid al-Fitr and the harvest and Feast of Tabernacles and Yom Kippur.
The Samaritans inherited an annual calendar of their own and ritual purity plays an important role in the Samaritan religious law. They have kept these beliefs and traditions alive ever since. This sanctity and seniority make this Mount of exceptional global value.
Mount Jerzim remains the religious center of the Samaritans while their village located at the bottom and to the west of the Mount is temporarily revived during the forty days of the Samaritan Easter. Their village is steadily developed and has modern buildings now.
