Sacrifice as the Passover to the Lord your God an animal from your flock or herd at the place the Lord will choose as a dwelling for his Name.
Deuteronomy 16:2
After the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70, sacrifices ceased. Well, that’s not entirely true. The Samaritans continue to this day to do one annual sacrifice: the Passover lamb. They did not view Jerusalem as the place to gather but instead Mt. Gerazim about 30 miles north. They used to have a temple there, but it is long gone now. Their calendar doesn’t entirely match the Jewish calendar. (Perhaps you’ll recall I talked about Passover a month ago)
I went with a few others to Mt. Gerazim and found a place to watch. The Samaritans number about 800 today. About half live on Mt. Gerazim and half live in Holon outside Tel Aviv. They came dressed in white. I would estimate a couple dozen sheep (and goats?) were brought for slaughter. (It would be inaccurate to say no animals were harmed in the process.) Large fire pits were blazing, with piles of wood at the ready.
At 6:30, they began their ceremony, chanting and singing the liturgy. Nearing sunset, just after 7:00, the high priest stepped up to the microphone, said a final prayer and the first batch had their throats slit. It was hard to see from our vantage point, but the blood was drained into vats and then the sheep were skinned. Large spits were brought out and stuck through each animal. Singing continued as they worked. They knew what they were doing to keep the process rolling along smoothly. Our bus was due to leave at 8:00, so we snapped a few final pictures and caught a quick whiff of roasting lamb before hurrying off, our way lit by the full moon.
Imagine back 2000 years ago. Myriads of Jews visited the Temple in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. What sort of process did the priests have for such a large crowd? Thousands if not tens of thousands of lambs were slaughtered. How could they get all that done in a reasonable amount of time? Imagine all the blood. Imagine the smell of the roasting meat. Imagine the joyous celebration, remembering God setting his people free from slavery in Egypt and being saved by the blood of the lamb.
I leave you (as usual) with some pictures, but I’ve deliberately chosen pictures that don’t have the slaughtered animals.
