Samson in rabbinic literature x. 13), was a member of that clan (comp. I Chronicles iv. 3). The name "Samson" is derived from "shemesh" ("sun"), so that Samson bore the name of God, who is also "a sun and shield" (Psalm lxxxiv. 12 [A. V. 11]); and as God protected Israel, so did Samson watch over it in his generation, judging the people even as did God. Samson's strength was divinely derived (Sotah 10a); and he further resembled God in requiring neither aid nor help (Genesis Rabba xcviii. 18). In the blessings which Jacob pronounced on the tribe of Dan (Genesis xlix. 16-17) he
Samson of Tottington baron, opposing the efforts of William of Longchamp to curtail the rights of the Benedictine Order. Samson died in 1211, having ruled his abbey for almost thirty years. Thomas Carlyle in "Book 2: The Ancient Monk" of "Past and Present" wrote an extended essay on Samson and leadership. Samson of Tottington Samson of Tottington (1135 – 1211) was an English Benedictine monk who became Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds. His life was later used by Thomas Carlyle as a model of leadership in his book "Past and Present". Samson was born at Tottington, near Thetford, in 1135. After taking his