One of the intriguing questions in the study of the period of the re-formation of Judaism after
the destruction of the Second Temple is the identity of a group which appears in hundreds of
Talmudic sources from those days - the minim..It is clear that most of these sources reflect
different facets of the polemic between Judaism and Christianity which were both engaged in
establishing their identities. This book concentrates mainly on the second century CE and
includes two basic questions: the question of the earliest text of the twelfth blessing of the
central Jewish prayer composed at that time Birkat haMinim and the question of the identity
of those minim who are cursed in this blessing.In the first section of the book Yaakov Yanki
Teppler analyzes the blessing itself. In the second section which concerns the question of its
principal objects he sets out on a quest for the characterization of the minim using all the
hundreds of sources which deal with them. Having united these two sections in one framework a
proposal is made as to the identity of the minim. This proposal should provide a coherent basis
for further research on this subject laying a firm foundation for understanding the processes
of separation between Judaism and Christianity in this stormy and fascinating period.
