1אין לוקחין בשר מטבח כותי אלא ממה שהוא אוכל ולא דקריות של צפורים אא״כ נתנם לתוך פיו לא שיתן הוא לישראל שכבר נחשדו שמאכילין את ישראל נבלות.
We do not buy meat from a Samaritan butcher except that of which he is prepared himself to eat, nor [do we buy from him] baskets of birds unless he first puts them in his mouth.1[Ḥul. 4a (Sonc. ed., p. 10) reads: ‘[The Israelite] cuts off the head of one of the birds and gives it to the Samaritan; if he ate it, then we may eat of his slaughtering’.] He must not give them to an Israelite to eat, since the Samaritans have from of old been suspected of giving Israelites carrion to eat.
2שוה הכותי לישראל לכל נזיקין שבתורה ישראל שהרג את הכותי וכותי שהרג את ישראל שוגג גולה מזיד נהרג שור של ישראל שנגח שור של כותי פטור ושור של כותי שנגח שור של ישראל אם תם הוא משלם חצי נזק ואם מועד משלם נזק שלם [ר״מ אומר שור של כותי שנגח שור של ישראל בין תם בין מועד משלם נזק שלם] ומשלם מן העליה.
The Samaritan is on the same footing as an Israelite in regard to all damages mentioned in the Torah. Whether an Israelite kills a Samaritan or a Samaritan kills an Israelite, if he did it by inadvertence he goes into exile [to a City of Refuge], if wilfully he is put to death. If the ox of an Israelite gored the ox of a Samaritan he is exempt from damages;2i.e. if it was not known to have a tendency to be a gorer. but should the ox of a Samaritan have gored the ox of an Israelite, if the ox is tam he pays half the damage and if it is mu‘ad3תם (innocuous) denotes an ox which had not previously gored, mu‘ad (warned) one which had done so and the owner had been warned. he pays the whole damage. R. Meir said: If an ox of a Samaritan gores the ox of an Israelite, whether it is tam or mu‘ad the owner pays the whole damage and pays from his best possessions.4[Cf. B.Ḳ. 38b (Sonc. ed., p. 217).]
3הגבינים שלהם מותרות רשב״א אומר אם של בעלי בתים מותרות ואם של סיטונים אסורות השלקין והכבשין שלהם שדרכן לעשות בהן יין וחומץ אסורים
Their cheeses are permitted. R. Simeon b. Eleazar said: Those of private persons are permitted, but those of wholesalers5H reads ‘those of the villages’. [The reason is that these cheeses are made for sale, and the makers are not particular to enclose them in skins of ritually clean animals.] are forbidden. Their cooked and preserved vegetables, into which they usually put wine or vinegar,6[Cf. Gerim I, 9, n. 18.] are forbidden.
4חולקים כהני ישראל וכהני כותים במקומם מפני שהם כמצילין מידם אבל לא במקום ישראל שלא יחזיקנו בכהונה. כהן כותי שהוא אוכל ומאכיל לישראל בטומאה מותר בטהרה אסור.
Israelite priests7About the time of Alexander the Great, the Samaritans built a temple on Mount Gerizim and a number of priests from Jerusalem, including a High Priest, went and ministered there. They were disowned by the Judeans. share with Samaritan priests in the latters’ districts because they, as it were, rescue [the produce] from their hands, but not in Israelite districts lest [Jews appear to] confirm their priesthood. If a Samaritan priest offers from what he is eating to an Israelite, should [the priest] be unclean it is permissible, but if clean it is forbidden.8The Samaritan priest, if unclean, would not eat terumah, and therefore the Israelite may eat what he was eating.
5אין לוקחים מנחתום כותי במוצאי פסח אלא לאחר ג׳ תנורים ולא מבעלי בתים אלא לאחר ג׳ שבתות ולא מן הכפרים אלא לאחר שלשה עסיות אימתי בזמן שלא עשו מצה עם ישראל או שהקדימו יום אחד אבל אם עשו מצה עם ישראל או שאחרו יום אחד חמצן מותר ור״ש אוסר לפי שאינם יודעים לשמור מצה כישראל.
We do not buy [bread] from a Samaritan baker on the outgoing of Passover until after three bakings [have been made], or from private persons until three weeks have passed, or from the villages until after three bakings.9H reads ‘makings’ which has the same meaning as ‘bakings’. [As the continuation indicates, the ruling was made because the Samaritan Passover did not always coincide exactly with the Jewish Festival. Cf. Kirchheim ad loc.] When does this apply? When they have not prepared their unleavened bread together with Israelites or they observed Passover one day earlier; but if they baked their unleavened bread together with Israelites or observed Passover one day later, their leaven is permitted. R. Simeon forbids it because they do not know how to observe the law of unleavened bread like the Israelites.
6בראשונה אמרו יינה של גדוד אסור מפני יינה של כפר חזרו לומר כ״מ שנחשדו המעורבים בעובדי כוכבים פתוחה אסורה סתומה מותרת רבי מאיר אומר כל יינם מותר חוץ מן הפתוחה שבשווקים וחכ״א פתוחה בכ״מ אסורה סתומה מותרת נקובה וסתומה כסתומה. הקנקנים שלהם חדשות מותרות וישנות אסורות.
At first they said: The wine of Gedor is forbidden on account of the wine of Kfar Paggasha.10For Gedor there is a variant ‘Kador’ and for Paggasha (the text in V is corrupt) ‘Pansha’. Apparently Gedor was a Samaritan village and Kfar Paggasha a heathen village near by with whose inhabitants the Samaritans freely mingled. Hence the doubt about the wine. Later they revised this rule and said: Wherever [Samaritans] are suspected because of their mingling with Gentiles, if [their wine is] in an open [vessel] it is forbidden,11Because some of it may have been used in heathen worship. and if in a closed [vessel] it is permitted. R. Meir said: All their wine is permitted except that which is in open [vessels for sale] in the markets; but the Sages said: In an open [vessel] it is everywhere forbidden and in a closed [vessel] permitted, while [a vessel] which has been pierced and then sealed is like one which is sealed. Their jars when new are permitted but when old are forbidden.12[Cf. ‘A.Z. 29b (Sonc. ed., p. 146); another instance of a law relating to Gentiles which was later applied to Samaritans. An old jar may have contained the wine of a heathen.]
7מפני מה הכותים אסורים לבוא בישראל מפני שנתערבו עם כהני הבמות. רבי ישמעאל אומר גרי צדק היו מתחילתן מפני מה אסורים מפני הממזרות ושאינן מיבמים את הנשואה.
Why are Samaritans forbidden to enter the Jewish community? Because they have become mixed up with the priests of the high places. R. Ishmael said: They were originally genuine proselytes. Why, then, are they forbidden? Because of the illegitimate females13[Since they are a mixed people, they include females who may not have been born to Israelite mothers and in turn their offspring are non-Israelite since their status in this respect depends upon that of the mother.] and because they do not perform the levirate duty to a married woman.14But perform ḥaliẓah instead. Cf. I, 11.
8מאימתי מקבלין אותם משכפרו בהר גריזים והודו בירושלים ובתחית המתים מכאן ואילך הגוזל את הכותי כגוזל את ישראל:
When may they be received into the Jewish community? When they have renounced Mount Gerizim and acknowledged Jerusalem and the resurrection of the dead.15[That the Samaritans denied the doctrine of resurrection is recorded in Sanh. 90b (Sonc. ed., p. 606, n. 1).] From then onwards one who robs a Samaritan is like one who robs an Israelite. [62a]
