The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2095 page)

Samaritans
.

A tribe descended from Israelites who were regarded as heretics by Jews. The Samaritans themselves believe they are descended from the tribes of
Ephraim
and Manasseh and, until the 17th cent. CE, their
high priest
was a direct descendant of
Aaron
. After they were rejected by the returning
exiles
in the Persian period, Sanballat, the Samaritan ruler, built a rival
temple
on Mount
Gerizim
(Nehemiah 13). This was destroyed by John Hyrcanus in 128 BCE, but it was said to have been rebuilt by the Romans as a reward for Samaritan help against the
Bar Kokhba
revolt. By the 19th cent. only a very small community remained in Shechem. In 1842, they were recognized by the
Jerusalem
Chief Rabbi
as ‘a branch of the Jewish people that confess to the truth of the
Torah’
, and, after the establishment of the State of
Israel
, they were recognized as citizens under the
Law of Return
. The Samaritans have their own version of the
Pentateuch
, and they claim that their most ancient
scroll
dates back to the thirteenth year of the Israelite settlement of
Canaan
. They have their own
liturgy
and various expositions and commentaries on the Pentateuch. They keep all the
festivals
mentioned in the Torah.
Passover
, Shavu‘ot, and Sukkot involve
pilgrimage
to Mount Gerizim, and
sacrifices
are made at Passover.

 
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see
SUICIDE
.

 
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(Skt., P
li
amatha, ‘tranquillity’, ‘calming-down’). The form of Buddhist
meditation
whose purpose is mind-development (
citta-
bh
van
) and which is defined in terms of the end that it achieves—mental tranquillity. It is to be distinguished from the other form of Buddhist meditation,
vipassan
, whose purpose is insight into Buddhist doctrinal truth. It is thus an alternative designation for
sam
dhi.

 
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