Genuinely Related to Judaism, Genuinely Distinct from It

Samaritan and Jewish tradition share the Torah as foundational scripture, though the Samaritan Pentateuch differs from the Jewish Masoretic text in several thousand specific readings, some minor and some theologically significant, including passages the Samaritan version reads as specifically supporting Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem as the divinely chosen site of worship, a textual and theological divergence going back to antiquity that scholars of both traditions continue to study comparatively.

Because the Samaritan community is so small and its religious leadership so directly and personally responsible for maintaining its continuously practiced liturgical tradition, and because that leadership has not published its specific liturgical texts for general outside use in the way some larger religious institutions have, this entry limits itself to recording Samaritanism's general character and its documented historical and textual relationship to Judaism, rather than attempting to describe or summarize the community's specific prayers and liturgical practice in detail. Samaritans continue to perform an annual Passover sacrifice on Mount Gerizim according to their own biblical calendar and ritual practice, a public and still actively observed ceremony that differs significantly in form from how Passover is marked within any stream of contemporary Judaism.