Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

March 30, 2018

Slaughtering the Paschal Lamb with Samaritans and Ethiopians

The few small Jewish groups that maintain the practice.

According to the Bible, on the fourteenth day of the month Nissan—today—every Israelite household is to sacrifice a lamb or kid in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt. While, for mainstream Judaism, all modern denominations included, the practice was discontinued after the destruction of the Second Temple, the ancient sect known as Samaritans, as well as a handful of Jews living in Ethiopia, still performs the ritual. Rachel Scheinerman describes attending the Passover ceremony of the former group, and learning about that of the latter:

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