Rabbi Ishmael ben Jose was making his way to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage when a Samaritan stopped him on the road. The Samaritans — who lived on and around Mount Gerizim and claimed to worship the same God as the Jews — frequently challenged Jewish travelers about the legitimacy of worshipping in Jerusalem rather than on their own sacred mountain.
This Samaritan was no different. He blocked the road and demanded to know why Rabbi Ishmael insisted on going to Jerusalem when Mount Gerizim was the true holy site.
Rabbi Ishmael looked at him and delivered a devastating reply. "You Samaritans have never truly abandoned the idols," he said. "When Jacob our father fled from Laban and returned to the land of Canaan, he buried the foreign gods and idolatrous images at the foot of Mount Shechem" (Genesis 35:4). "Your mountain sits atop that burial ground. You are still hankering after those same idols that Jacob buried beneath your feet."
The accusation cut deep. Rabbi Ishmael was not simply arguing about geography or the correct location for a temple. He was claiming that the entire Samaritan attachment to Mount Gerizim was unconsciously rooted in the buried idolatry of the patriarchal era — that the ground itself was tainted, and the Samaritans, whether they knew it or not, were drawn to the place where foreign gods lay hidden.
The Jerusalem Talmud in Avodah Zarah (5:4) and Genesis Rabbah (81:3) preserve this exchange as a sharp example of the theological rivalry between Jews and Samaritans that lasted for centuries.