You won't recognize it right away, but there is a temple on Mount Gerizim. The High Priest's brother, whose name I could not pronounce and who is also a priest himself, met us to tell us about his small community of 850 Samaritans.
"Christians should come and visit us, because Jesus did. I am the Good Samaritan," the priest said with gusto. Our guide, who is Greek Orthodox and knows the priest well, retorted in jest, "The Good Samaritan is character in a parable...he is not an actual person!" And I smile to myself thinking how rare a sight it is to have a Christians and a Samaritan having a friendly argument over historical theology.
At the markets, we had the Arab version of the Kanafe. Simpler, made in a humungous pan rather than the small, individually sized ones we had at the Mahane Yehuda market. I pray that someday, there will be a gathering around these huge pans like never seen before.
