(27) The king of Assyria gave an order: “Send there one of the priests whom you have deported; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the practices of the God of the land.” (28) So one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and settled in Bethel; he taught them how to fear the LORD.
One of the priests- he was a priest of the images worshipped by Israel; however, Israel believed in the existence of God and beheld God as a supreme deity; Israel perceived the calves as intermediaries. For Israel, this was a transgression of the law, as Israel was commanded to practice unadulterated and exclusive monotheism because they are under God's direct control and not those of the stars. But with regard to the Kutim/Samaritans, it was sufficient that they acknowledge that they feared God...that they called Him the "God of gods". In this regard, the priest from Bethel taught them how they should fear God.
(יב) נכרי שתרם תרומתו תרומה בד"א על הגורן [הפריש תרומה ונתנה לכהן מעשר ראשון ונתנו ללוי מעשר עני ונתנו לעני פירותיו מתוקנות המכניס] פירותיו לתוך ביתו פירותיו מקולקלין [ישראל החשוד שמכניס פירותיו לתוך ביתו פירותיו מקולקלין הכותי כנכרי דברי רבי רשב"ג אומר הכותי כישראל].
A non-Jew who separated tithes, his terumah is concerned to be viable. A non-Jew who brought his fruit into his home before separating tithes, his fruits are considered to be mixed up (we don't trust his terumah). A "kuti" is considered to be a non-Jew in such matters. Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel says, A "kuti" is treated like a Jew.
The mishna states that a Samaritan [Kuti] may be included in a zimmun. The Gemara asks: Why? Even if you consider him a member of the Jewish people, let him be merely an am ha’aretz, one who is not scrupulous in matters of ritual purity and tithes, and it was taught in a baraita: An am ha’aretz may not be included in a zimmun. The Gemara offers several answers: Abaye said: The mishna is referring to a Kuti who is a ḥaver, one who is scrupulous in those areas. ...The Rabbis say: An am ha’aretz is anyone who does not appropriately tithe his produce. And these Kutim tithe their produce appropriately, as they are scrupulous with regard to that which is written in the Torah, as the Master said: Any mitzva that the Kutim embraced and accepted upon themselves, they are even more exacting in its observance than Jews.
(י) הַנּוֹדֵר מִשּׁוֹבְתֵי שַׁבָּת, אָסוּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָסוּר בַּכּוּתִים. מֵאוֹכְלֵי שׁוּם, אָסוּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָסוּר בַּכּוּתִים. מֵעוֹלֵי יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, אָסוּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וּמֻתָּר בַּכּוּתִים:
(10) One who takes a vow that deriving benefit from those who rest on Shabbat is forbidden to him is prohibited from deriving benefit from a Jew, and he is also prohibited from deriving benefit from Samaritans [Kutim] because they are also Shabbat observers. One who takes a vow that deriving benefit from those who eat garlic on Shabbat night is forbidden to him is prohibited from deriving benefit from a Jew, and he is also prohibited from benefiting from Samaritans. However, if one takes a vow that deriving benefit from those who ascend to Jerusalem is forbidden to him, he is prohibited from deriving benefit from a Jew, but he is permitted to benefit from Samaritans because they do not ascend to Jerusalem, but rather, to Mount Gerizim.
מאוכלי שום – one of ten enactments made by Ezra [the Scribe] that they would eat garlic on Friday evenings, because it increases seed, and Friday evening is the time for fulfillment of marital duties of Sages (see also Tractate Ketubot, Chapter 5, Mishnah 6).
(ה) לעולם מלין את העובד כוכבים לשם גר ועובד כוכבים לא ימול את ישראל מפני שחשודין על הנפשות דברי ר"מ וחכ"א עובד כוכבים מל את ישראל בזמן שאחרים עומדין על גביו בינו לבינו אסור מפני שחשודין על הנפשות. ישראל מל את הכותי וכותי לא ימול את ישראל מפני שהן מלין לשם הר גריזים דברי ר' יהודה אמר לו ר' יוסי היכן מצינו מילה בתורה שאינה לשם ברית אלא ימול לשם הר גריזים
A Jew can circumcise a non-Jew for the sake of conversion, but a non-Jew cannot circumcise a Jew because we are afraid that they will kill him, according to the opinion of Rabbi Meir. The Sages say that a non-Jew can circumcise a Jew as long as others are standing behind him. A Jew can circumcise a Samaritan, but a Samaritan cannot circumcise a Jew as they circumcise towards worship on Mt. Gerizim, according to Rabbi Yehudah. Rabbi Yosi responds to him, "Where do we find this idea that there can be circumcision not for the sake of the brit, but rather for the purpose of worship on Mt. Gerizim?
(ח) בָּא לָהֶם יַיִן לְאַחַר הַמָּזוֹן וְאֵין שָׁם אֶלָּא אוֹתוֹ הַכּוֹס, בֵּית שַׁמַּאי אוֹמְרִים, מְבָרֵךְ עַל הַיַּיִן וְאַחַר כָּךְ מְבָרֵךְ עַל הַמָּזוֹן. וּבֵית הִלֵּל אוֹמְרִים, מְבָרֵךְ עַל הַמָּזוֹן וְאַחַר כָּךְ מְבָרֵךְ עַל הַיָּיִן. עוֹנִין אָמֵן אַחַר יִשְׂרָאֵל הַמְבָרֵךְ, וְאֵין עוֹנִין אָמֵן אַחַר הַכּוּתִי הַמְבָרֵךְ, עַד שֶׁיִּשְׁמַע כָּל הַבְּרָכָה:
(8) Wine came before the diners after the meal; if only that cup of wine is there, Beit Shammai say: One recites a blessing over the wine and recites a blessing over the food, Grace after Meals, thereafter. And Beit Hillel say: One recites a blessing over the food and recites a blessing over the wine thereafter. And one answers amen after a Jew who recites a blessing even if he did not hear the entire blessing, and one does not answer amen after a Samaritan [Kuti] who recites a blessing until he hears the whole blessing in its entirety, as perhaps the Kuti introduced an element inconsistent with the Jewish faith in that section of the blessing that he did not hear.
(ב) בָּרִאשׁוֹנָה הָיוּ מַשִּׂיאִין מַשּׂוּאוֹת. מִשֶּׁקִּלְקְלוּ הַכּוּתִים, הִתְקִינוּ שֶׁיְּהוּ שְׁלוּחִין יוֹצְאִין:
(2) Initially, after the court sanctified the new month they would light torches on the mountaintops, from one peak to another, to signal to the community in Babylonia that the month had been sanctified. After the Samaritans [Kutim] corrupted and ruined this method by lighting torches at the wrong times to confuse the Jews, the Sages instituted that messengers should go out to the Diaspora and inform them of the start of the month.
and Rabbi Yishmael holds in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Akiva concerning a different halakha. The Gemara clarifies: Rabbi Elazar holds in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Yishmael, who says: Samaritans are lion converts, i.e., they converted out of fear of being attacked by lions for worshipping idols in Eretz Yisrael. They were never converts for the sake of Heaven, but remained gentiles according to halakha. And Rabbi Yishmael holds in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Akiva, who says: In the case of a gentile or a Canaanite slave who engaged in sexual intercourse with a Jewish woman, the offspring is a mamzer. Since over the generations Jews assimilated with Samaritans, who have the status of gentiles, the descendants of those Jews who married Samaritans have the status of uncertain mamzerim.
§ The Gemara asks: And what is the reason that the Sages, Rabban Gamliel and his court, issued a decree rendering it prohibited to eat from the slaughter of Samaritans? The Gemara answers: It is like that case involving Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar, in which Rabbi Meir dispatched him to bring wine from the area of the Samaritans. A certain elder found him and said to him: “And put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite” (Proverbs 23:2),as a warning to distance himself from them and not to drink their wine, because they were not reliable. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar went and related those matters before Rabbi Meir, and Rabbi Meir issued a decree against them. What is the reason that the Samaritans are deemed unreliable? Rav Naḥman bar Yitzḥak said: At the peak of Mount Gerizim they found the image of a dove, which the Samaritan residents of Mount Gerizim would worship; and Rabbi Meir issued the decree according to his line of reasoning that he takes the minority into consideration, and therefore, despite the fact that the majority of Samaritans did not live on Mount Gerizim, he issued a decree rendering meat slaughtered by the majority forbidden due to the minority that worshipped that idol. And Rabban Gamliel and his court also hold in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Meir. .... Rabbi Abbahu dispatched Rabbi Yitzḥak ben Yosef to bring wine from the area of the Samaritans. A certain elder found him and said to him: The people here are not keepers of the Torah. Rabbi Yitzḥak went and related the matters before Rabbi Abbahu, and Rabbi Abbahu went and related the matters before Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi, and they did not move from there until they rendered the Samaritans full-fledged gentiles. The Gemara asks: For what matters did those Sages render them full-fledged gentiles? If it was to prohibit eating from their slaughter and to render their wine as wine used for a libation in idol worship, these prohibitions were issued previously. From there, from the generations of Rabbi Meir and Rabban Gamliel, the Sages issued a decree prohibiting them. The Gemara answers: They issued a decree, and the people did not accept it from them. Rabbi Ami and Rabbi Asi came and issued a decree, and the people accepted it from them.
3. But now the Cutheans, who removed into Samaria, (for that is the name they have been called by to this time: because they were brought out of the countrey called Cuthah, which is a countrey of Persia, and there is a river of the same name in it:) each of them, according to their nations, which were in number five, brought their own gods into Samaria: and by worshipping them, as was the custom of their own countries, they provoked Almighty God to be angry and displeased at them. For a plague (29) seized upon them; by which they were destroyed. And when they found no cure for their miseries, they learned by the oracle, that they ought to worship Almighty God; as the method for their deliverance. So they sent Ambassadors to the King of Assyria; and desired him to send them some of those Priests of the Israelites whom he had taken captive. And when he thereupon sent them, and the people were by them taught the laws, and the holy worship of God, they worshipped him in a respectful manner: and the plague ceased immediately. And indeed they continue to make use of the very same customs to this very time: and are called in the Hebrew tongue Cutheans, but in the Greek tongue Samaritans. And when they see the Jews in prosperity, they pretend that they are changed, and allied to them; and call them kinsmen: as though they were derived from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliance with them. But when they see them falling into a low condition, they say they are no way related to them: and that the Jews have no right to expect any kindness or marks of kindred from them: but they declare that they are sojourners, that come from other countries. But of these we shall have a more seasonable opportunity to discourse hereafter.