Follow the shoe!

[mgc1961]

Clad in gray coat, Aharon ben Ab-Chisda ben Yaacob, 85, is sitting in the dim light of his house. He strikes up a throaty chant, a litany in ancient Hebrew. He has a full beard and is wearing a red kippah on his head.

The man is a high priest -- and his family tree goes back 132 generations. He says: "I am a direct descendent of Aaron, the brother of the prophet Moses" -- who lived perhaps over 3,000 years ago.

Ab-Chisda is the spiritual leader of the Samaritans, a sect that is so strict that its members are not even allowed to turn on the heat on the Sabbath. They never eat shrimp and only marry among themselves. Their women are said to be so impure during menstruation that they are secluded in special rooms for seven days.

Outside, on the streets of Kiryat Luza, near Nablus, a cold wind is blowing. The village lies just below the summit of Mount Gerizim. There's a school, two shops and a site for sacrifices. This is home to 367 Samaritans. It's a small community.

Read on at http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,827144,00.html

[broiles]

1. Somebody explain to me

If Moses was left in the reeds as a baby, how did he get a brother or know Aaron was his brother?

[mgc1961]

2. Claiming 132 generations of verifiable parentage is a bold claim.

My experience with genealogy is this: It's often pretty difficult to find evidence of relation to people who lived only 175-200 years ago. That being said, I have seen a Hinkle (Henckel) family history which seems pretty solid at least into the first half of the 17th century and possibly as far back as the era of the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century. Still, that's less than 700 years.