The " imprecation against the Sadducees stands twelfth among the collects of the Shemoneh Esreh. It is popularly known as " Velamaleshinim from its opening words, and is given thus in modern Ashkenazi liturgies: — " Oh, let the slanderers have no hope, all the wicked be annihilated speedily, and all the tyrants be cut off, hurled down and reduced speedily; humble Thou them quickly in our days. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who destroyest enemies and humblest tyrants.8 There has been much misconception with regard to this collect against heretics.
There is every reason to believe it was composed without any reference whatever to the Christians. One point of interest, however, in connection with it is worth relating here. Some have sought to identify the author of it, Samuel the Little, with the Apostle Paul, grounded the conclusion on his original Hebrew name, Saul. They take Paulus as equal to pusillus, which means • very little or " the less,8 and answers to the word Hakaton, a term of similar import.
Samuel, however, died a good Jew (see Semachoth, chap. 8), and Rabbon Gamliel Hazaken and Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah pronounced a funeral oration at his burial. " His key and his diary were placed on his coffin, because he had no son to succeed him.8 (See also Sanhedrin, fol. II, col. I.)