Shmuel ha-Katan (literally ''Samuel the Small'', or ''Samuel the Lesser'') was a
Babylonian Jew considered a great early
Jewish law. He was one of the second generation of
Tannaim who served under the patriarch
Gamliel II of
Yavneh during the last two decades of the 1st century CE.
He is supposed to have established some of the standard prayers of the Jewish liturgy, the
''siddur''. He wrote the ''
Birkat HaMinim'' benediction, the 19th blessing in the silent prayer said three times daily, the
Amidah
The ''Amidah'' (, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' during each of the three services prayed on week ...
. This prayer condemns heretics, most likely the
Jewish Christians.
He is said to have said, "Do not rejoice when your enemy falls".
References
External links
Jeffrey M. Cohen, "Shmuel HaKatan and the political background to Avot 4:19"originally in ''Judaism'', Spring, 1995
Mishnah rabbis
1st-century rabbis
{{MEast-rabbi-stub