In Parashat Shemini, we’re told that Nadab and Abihu
each offered to God what the Torah cryptically describes as “alien fire,”
perhaps denoting Jews whom Shmuel Haqatan disparaged in a preview
of an unresolved debate that has proved to be disastrously dire,
prayerfully opposing followers of Jesus, whose views in this verse suggest
caused him to label as minim Jews whose beliefs he found distressing.
This word shares the letters that iterate Shemini, this link inspiring him to contest
in an addition to the Shemonah Esrei — Eighteen-Blessing — prayer, the right of renegades to any divine blessing.
Silence was the response of Aaron to his two sons’ divinely-directed deaths, perhaps because his grief
was as far beyond relief
as was fiery confusion caused by their alienated belief,
an ironical Aaronic aberration
preceding an abysmal error in the nation.
Ber. 28b-29a ascribes the composition of the blessing against minim, generally assumed to be Jewish Christians, to Shmuel HaQatan, a contemporary of Rabban Gamliel. BBer 28b-29a says that the reason Shmuel Haqatan was considered suitable for this task adam she-yodea letaken birkhat hatsedukim, someone who knows who to order to the blessings of (against) the Sadducees. Perhaps the reason he was considered suitable for this task is because of his statement in Avot 4:19:
שמואל הקטן אומר (משלי כד) בנפול אויבך אל תשמח ובכשלו אל יגל לבך פן יראה ה’ ורע בעיניו והשיב מעליואפו
Shmuel Haqatan says: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when your enemy stumbles; Lest God see it, and be displeased, and God turn away God’s wrath from your enemy.
This quotes Prov. 24:17-18, which is Shmuel Haqatan’s prooftext for what R. Shimon ben Elazar taught in the previous Mishnah: (Avot 4:18):
Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar taught “Do not placate your fellow in the moment of his anger; do not comfort him while his dead lies before him; do not question him [about the details] of his vow at the moment he makes it; and do not seek to see him at the time of his degradation.”
On the one hand Shmuel Haqatan was a suitable candidate for writing the Birkat HaMinim because he understood that while it is right that the Jewish Christians be castigated, he also realized that anyone who does castigate them should not rejoice in their downfall. In addition, the Birkat HaMinim is actually a fulfillment of the two verses in Proverbs that precede the one he quoted in Avot 4:19, since they follow the blessing for the tsaddiqim, exhorting the wicked people not to disturb them. I cite below these two verses, plus the two that Shmuel Haqatan quotes:
טו אַל-תֶּאֱרֹב רָשָׁע, לִנְוֵה צַדִּיק; אַל-תְּשַׁדֵּד רִבְצוֹ.
15 Lie not in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous, spoil not his resting-place;
טז כִּי שֶׁבַע, יִפּוֹל צַדִּיק וָקָם; וּרְשָׁעִים, יִכָּשְׁלוּ בְרָעָה.
16 For a righteous man falleth seven times, and riseth up again, but the wicked stumble under adversity.
יז בִּנְפֹל אויביך (אוֹיִבְךָ), אַל-תִּשְׂמָח; וּבִכָּשְׁלוֹ, אַל-יָגֵל לִבֶּךָ.
17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth;
יח פֶּן-יִרְאֶה יְהוָה, וְרַע בְּעֵינָיו; וְהֵשִׁיב מֵעָלָיו אַפּוֹ.
18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him. {P}
Gershon Hepner is a poet who has written over 25,000 poems on subjects ranging from music to literature, politics to Torah. He grew up in England and moved to Los Angeles in 1976. Using his varied interests and experiences, he has authored dozens of papers in medical and academic journals, and authored “Legal Friction: Law, Narrative, and Identity Politics in Biblical Israel.” He can be reached at gershonhepner@gmail.com.
