Rabbinic Prayer Against Jewish Followers of Yeshua by slaveofone
In the Talmud Bavli (better known as the Babylonian Talmud), the Rabbis describe a prayer that was added to the 18 Benedictions after the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome. The subject of this additional prayer (called the Birkat Ha Minim) was the minim or Jewish heretics (see Tractate Berakoth, folio 28b and 29a). Any sectarian Jew who recited the prayer would bring down a curse of Yahweh’s condemnation and judgment upon himself. Therefore, by requiring this to be spoken aloud in the synagogue along with the other 18 Benedictions, it was the purpose of the rabbis to expose the non-Orthodox who would not speak such a thing upon themselves. Several rabbis spoke of these Benedictions metaphorically as vertebrae in the spinal column. To use a modern equivalent of the metaphor, this means that the Rabbis saw these Benedictions (including the additional one against minim) as being the backbone of their faith. One of the Jewish sects that the word minim undoubtedly represented was that of the Jewish believers in Yeshua, the Nazarenes. An ancient version of the Birkat Ha Minim found in the Cairo Geniza actually makes this identification explicit.
For the renegades let there be no hope, and may the arrogant kingdom soon be rooted out in our days, and the Nazarenes and the minim perish as in a moment and be blotted out from the book of life and with the righteous may they not be inscribed. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, who humblest the arrogant.
published by Solomon Schechter inGenizah Specimens, Jewish Quarterly Review 10