Samaritans and Purity Law

This passage from the Mishnah reflects the hybrid legal status of Samaritans in early rabbinic writings. Samaritan interpretation of biblical purity law differed from that of the rabbis. For example, the rabbis maintained that an infant could become impure (m. Niddah 5:3), while Samaritans did not, and the two groups differed on exactly when a woman should immerse in a mikveh (ritual bath) after menstruation. Because it was possible for a Samaritan who considered him- or herself pure to be impure by rabbinic standards, the rabbis required that Samaritans be considered impure at all times. However, certain rabbinic laws, such as the requirement to burn an impure terumah (offering to a priest), only applied in cases of definite impurity. Since rabbinic and Samaritan law sometimes coincided, it was always possible for a Samaritan to be pure by rabbinic standards, and laws that applied only in cases of definite impurity would not go into effect.