Velamalshinim: the informers

The author forgot it the next year

At Yavneh, Rabban Gamliel (the head of the Sages after the Temple was destroyed) asked if anyone could compose a blessing against the minim, the Gemara's word for heretics. Shmuel HaKatan stood up and did it. The next year he was leading the prayer and forgot it. He stood there for two or three hours trying to remember, and nobody removed him. The Avot page tells how the Amidah was put in order. This is what happened next.

He once took the blame to spare someone shame

Hakatan means "the small." One reason the Yerushalmi (the Talmud of the Land of Israel) gives for the name is that he made himself small. In one Gemara story, Rabban Gamliel finds an uninvited man at a meeting of the Sages and orders him out. Shmuel HaKatan stands up and says, "It was me." It was not. He took the blame so the real man would not be shamed.

His own teaching: do not celebrate an enemy's fall

Pirkei Avot (the Mishnah's collection of the Sages' sayings) records this teaching in his name: "When your enemy falls, do not rejoice, and when he stumbles, do not let your heart be glad." These are the words of Mishlei (Proverbs) 24:17, and the next verse gives a reason: God may see it, be displeased, and turn His anger away from the enemy.

Its name keeps changing

Versions of the Gemara text disagree. One calls this "the blessing of the minim." The other calls it "the blessing of the Tzedukim," the Sadducees. The Yerushalmi names it by its ending, "who subdues the insolent." The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law) calls it "the blessing of the malshinim," the informers, and your siddur opens with that word. The names point to different groups. The second question below goes through them.

Why it comes right after the judges

The Gemara explains the order of the Amidah with verses. Once the exiles are gathered, judgment is carried out on the wicked, and the transgressors come to an end. It brings Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 1:28: "the destruction of transgressors and sinners together." The insolent are included with them. And once they are finished, the strength of the righteous rises, so the next blessing is about the righteous. This blessing is one step in a chain: judgment, then the end of transgressors, then the rise of the righteous.

The first word depends on the siddur

The Mishnah Berurah (a major commentary on daily Jewish law, written around 1900) discusses a leader who says "velamalshinim," "and for the informers," where its text has "velakofrim," "and for the deniers." It says he is not removed, since some places say "velamalshinim" from the start. Siddur Edot HaMizrach opens "laminim velamalshinim," and the Kaf HaChaim (Jerusalem, early 1900s) says the custom now is to say both.

Two lines are borrowed from Tanach

"And all Your enemies will be cut off" is almost word for word the end of Michah (Micah) 5:8. There the prophet tells Israel: "Your hand will be raised over your foes, and all your enemies will be cut off." In the prayer the words are said to God. And "hope" and "perish" come together in Mishlei (Proverbs) 10:28: "the hope of the wicked will perish." The prayer has the same two words in one sentence.

Ask for the evil to end, not the person

The Maharal of Prague (a great Jewish thinker who died in 1609) wrote a book answering attacks on the Sages. One attack was that they put improper words into their prayers, even words against the government, and this blessing was the example. He answers with Beruriah's lesson (she was the wife of Rabbi Meir; Berakhot 10a): pray that sin ends, not that sinners die. So the blessing, he says, speaks of nobody's downfall. It asks that God take the evil out of their hearts, so they come back. His wording of the blessing is different from ours.

אין מדבר מן מפלתן, רק שיסיר השם יתברך הדבר הרע הזה מלבם, ויחזרו בתשובה

When the mouth blesses and the heart does not

Rabbi Yaakov Yosef of Polnoye was a senior student of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Chassidut. His book, printed in 1780, was the first book of Chassidic teachings ever published. He quotes Tehillim (Psalms): "With their mouths they bless, and inwardly they curse." One of his examples is a person who informs on a friend and then says, "For the informers let there be no hope." His mouth is saying one of the Amidah's blessings. His own words curse him. Now read the line again, slowly.

או שהוא מלשין חבירו, וכשאומר ולמלשינים אל תהי תקוה... בפיו יברכו... ובקרבם יקללו סלה

Pray for the ones who trouble you

The Baal Shem Tov (the founder of Chassidut, who lived from about 1700 to 1760) taught that people who trouble you and talk against you can be traced back to you. If you damage your own speech, for example with gossip, that damage can come back as people who speak against you. His advice is not to push them away. Pray that they return and are repaired, like Beruriah's lesson to Rabbi Meir. Push them away, he says, and they hate you more.

בני אדם השונאים אותו באו על ידי פגם דיבורו... צריך להעלותן ולתקנן על ידי דיבור התפלה להתפלל עליהם שישובו ויתוקנו

Prayer against "it is all just nature"

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov (a Chassidic master who lived from 1772 to 1810) writes that philosophers call nature "the mother of all life." We, with our prayers, cancel nature, he says, because nature demands one result and prayer changes it. He ties this to the Eighteen Blessings: in Hebrew the number 18 is spelled like the word chai, "life." With those blessings, he says, we cancel nature and also subdue the heretics and skeptics. The blessing for the informers is the one he does not count in the eighteen.

הפילוסופים קורים להטבע אם כל חי, ואנחנו על ידי תפלותינו אנו מבטלים הטבע

What if I skip it by mistake?

Velamalshinim is the twelfth blessing, one of the middle ones. The Atah Chonen prayer gives the rule for a middle blessing skipped by mistake. The Shulchan Aruch (the main code of Jewish law, from the 1500s) says to go back to the start of the blessing you skipped and say everything after it again, in order. The Mishnah Berurah (a central commentary on daily Jewish law, from around 1900) adds that this holds even if you notice only several blessings later.

If the leader skips it, is he out for good?

No. The Shulchan Aruch rules that a prayer leader who skips this blessing entirely is replaced at once, but not one who starts it and stumbles. The Aruch HaShulchan (a code of law from around 1900) says this is only a suspicion. So the leader steps down for that prayer only, not for good. The third hard question explains why this blessing has this rule.

Do I say it on Shabbat and holidays?

No. Velamalshinim belongs only to the weekday Amidah, which you say at Shacharit, Minchah and Maariv. On Shabbat and Yom Tov the Amidah has seven blessings, as the Rambam (Maimonides, 1100s) counts them. The Hashiveinu prayer explains why the weekday requests are left out on those days.

Do all siddurim say the words the same way?

No. The Aruch HaShulchan says the wording differs between siddurim because of proofreaders' mistakes, and he writes out the text he found in an old book. The Kaf HaChaim (a Sephardic law commentary from the early 1900s) says not to say 'and all who do wickedness,' which some siddurim print, because that would be cursing yourself. He prefers 'and the kingdom of wickedness.' This siddur says 'and all the wickedness.'

Does everyone end it the same way?

This siddur ends 'shover oyvim umakhni'a zedim,' 'who breaks enemies and subdues the insolent.' The Sha'arei Teshuvah (a law commentary from the early 1800s) says to end only this way, because the early Kabbalists noted that the first letters of those four words have the number value of the name Shaddai. The Chida (Rabbi Chaim Yosef David Azulai, 1700s) reports a tradition to end 'shover oyvim umakhni'a minim,' so the ending matches the opening. The Kaf HaChaim lists several views.