The decision to regard the Samaritans as Gentiles, has far reaching implications, not dealt with in the Talmud. Can the rabbis declare a Jew to be a non-Jew? By what authority? Is there any basis in either Tanach or Talmud for "cutting of" a segment of the Jewish people? Is it not a fixed, basic principle in Judaism that once a Jew, always a Jew? To take the last question first; the short answer is "no". There are discussions in the Talmud about many nations and ethnic groups that are descended from Jews, but now practice other religions and do not consider themselves Jews.. The Talmud refers to such people as "dough" (isah); that is, they are so integrated into other ways that the Jewish element is no longer distinguishable. The conclusion is that in some cases, they will come back. In other cases, they will not. The primary example of those who will someday come back, is the Pathani (Pashtun) people. You know them as Afghanis. They maintain tribal orders based on Biblical clan names, and have certain rituals that are clearly Jewish. Yet, I do not recommend that you tell this to them; especially the Taliban.. But there is hope for their return. (It is virtually certain that Afghanistan is the primary home of the lost tribes). There are other groups that are so assimilated, that the rabbis conceded that they will not return. Getting back to the Samaritans, who were, after all, considered Jews, albeit renegade Jews, for a thousand years, it is more complicated. When the rabbis declared them to be Gentiles, did they mean that literally? Or did they mean "to be considered as Gentiles"? Several early rabbinic authorities postulated exactly that. The Samaritans, with their revisionist history, vastly changed Torah (some 6.000 deviations from ours), and especially with accusations that they have adopted and maintained some pagan ways, seemed too dangerous to accept into our midst. without fear of forever corrupting Judaism beyond recognition. Perhaps the rabbis saw cutting off a limb as better than losing the whole body.This question became real again with the rise of the Karaite heresy. Could a Karaite marry a Rabbinite Jew? For centuries they did! We have found marriage contracts (ketubot) from such marriages , stipulating in what areas the couple will observe Rabbinite Judaism, and in what cases they will follow Karaite ways. This came essentially to a halt in the twelfth century with RAMBAM declaring Karaites the enemy of Judaism, and even encouraging violence against them. (This was purely theoretical, as the Jews were powerless to enforce either capital or corporal punishment). Generally speaking. the Sepharadim were more forgiving of people who had opted into heresies, as long as they renounced their ways. Rabbi Moshe Isserles (RAMA), the major Ashkenazi voice in the Shulchan Aruch, opines that any group or family that has been away from the path of Torah for three generations, is no longer Jewish. I know of no proof either for or against this view in Talmud. Therefore, when Jewish groups of questionable lineage come to the fore, Sepharadic rabbis are inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt; either accepting them "as is", or performing some simple, no questions asked, conversion ceremony. Ashkenazim will usually require full conversion.These matters often come to national attention in Israel, and, sadly, often wind up in the secular courts. But there are other issues. In my next post I will delve into a common LENIENCY, which is of unlikely validity, that puts even some Orthodox conversions into question. It is called "the principle of the kidnapped child". Stay tuned.
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