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Eleazar ben Killir, also known as Eleazar Kalir, Eleazar Qalir or El'azar HaKalir (c. 570 – c. 640) was a Hebrew poet whose classical liturgical verses, known as ''piyut'', have continued to be sung through the centuries during significant religious services, including those on ''Tisha B'Av'' and on the sabbath after a wedding. He was one of Judaism's earliest and most prolific of the ''paytanim'', Hebrew liturgical poets. He wrote ''piyutim'' for all the main Jewish festivals, for special Sabbaths, for weekdays of festive character, and for the fasts.〔 Many of his hymns have found their way into festive prayers of the Ashkenazi Jews' synagogal rite.〔 ==Biographical details== Although his poems have had a prominent place in printed ritual and he is known to have lived somewhere in the Near East, documentation regarding details of the life of Eleazar ben Killir has been lost to history, including the exact year and circumstances of his birth and death. He is said to have been the disciple of another 6th-century composer of ''piyut'', Yannai who, according to a certain legend, grew jealous of Eleazar's superior knowledge and caused his death by inserting into his shoe a scorpion whose sting proved to be fatal.〔 Samuel David Luzzatto, however, dismisses this legend in light of the fact that Yannai's ''piyutim'' are still said. Luzzatto argues that if Yannai was a murderer then there is no way Yannai's ''piyutim'' would be so popular. Additionally, argues Luzzatto, Rabbi Gershom ben Judah mentions Yannai and uses honorific terms, something Rabbi Gershom would not have done if the legend is true. In the acrostics of his hymns he usually signs his father's name, ''Kalir'', but three times he writes ''Killir''.〔 In some of them, he adds the name of his city, Kirjath-sepher (See ). Eleazar's name, home (Kirjath-sepher), and time have been the subject of many discussions in modern Jewish literature (Italy, Babylonia, Mesopotamia and Palestine have been claimed by different scholars as Killir's native land), and some legends concerning his career have been handed down.〔 The author of the "''Aruk''" (s.v. 3, קלר) derives the name "Kalir" from the Greek κολλνρα = "a small cake,"〔 and reports that the poet obtained his name from a cake, inscribed with Biblical verses, which was given him to eat as a talisman for wisdom when he began to go to school. His scholarship having been attributed later to that talisman, he was called "Eleazar the Cake." While such a custom is known to have existed among the western Syrians and the Jews, others claim that the explanation put forward by the "''Aruk''" is not acceptable, since "Kalir" is not the name of the poet, but that of his father.〔 Another interpretation holds that the name was derived from the poet's or his father's hometown:〔 the Italian city Cagliari〔 in Sardinia, Calais, Cologne, Kallirrhoe in Transjordan (A. Jellinek, S. Cassel), or Edessa in Syria (F. Perles).〔 Others see in it the Latin name "Celer"〔 (J. Derenbourg).〔 The city Kirjath-sepher has been identified with the biblical place in the Land of Israel of the same name (W. Heidenheim),〔 with the Babylonian Sippara (Filosseno Luzzatto), and with Cagliari (Civitas Portus), in Italy.〔 The theory that he lived in Italy is based upon the premise that he wrote double "''Kerobot''" for the festivals (Berliner, "''Geschichte der Juden in Rom''," ii. 15; Einstein, in "''Monatsschrift''," xxxvi. 529)〔 although Tosafot〔 and Rosh〔 assert that he did not write any for the second days. His time has been set at different dates, from the second century, to the tenth or eleventh century.〔 Based on Saadiah's ''Sefer ha-galuy'', some place him in the 6th century.〔 Older authorities consider him to have been a teacher of the Mishnah and identify him either with Eleazar b. 'Arak or with Eleazar b. Simeon (See 〔 where he discusses whether he was the son of Rashbi or another Rabbi Shimon). He has been confounded with another poet by the name of Eleazar b. Jacob; and a book by the title of "''Kebod Adonai''" was ascribed to him by Botarel.〔 The earliest references to Killir seem to be in a responsum of Natronai Gaon (c. 853; Weiss, "''Dor Dor we-Dorshaw''," iv. 118), in the "''Yetzirah''" commentary of Saadia (see Gräber, in "''Oẓar ha-Sifrut''," i., v.) and in his "''Agron''" (Stade's "''Zeitschrift''," 1882, p. 83), as well as in the writings of Al-Kirkisani (Harkavy, in "''Ha-Maggid''," 1879, No. 45, p. 359a).〔 Modern research points to the probability that he and his teacher were Palestinian Jews; and since Yannai is known to have been one of the halakic authorities of Anan ben David, the alleged founder of Karaism, and must therefore have lived a considerable time earlier than he had, Killir's time may be fixed with some probability as the first half of the 7th century.〔 From a linguistic point of view it would seem that Killir lived in the Land of Israel at the end of the sixth century.〔 Killir's hymns became an object of study and of Kabbalistic exegesis, as his personality was a mystery. It was related that heavenly fire surrounded him when he wrote the "Ve'hachayos" in ''Kedushah'' for Rosh Hashanah;〔''Shibbole ha-Leket'' 28〕 that he himself ascended to heaven and there learned from the angels the secret of writing alphabetical hymns.〔 A peculiar development of the Killir legend is seen in the story that Saadia found in the tomb of Killir a recipe for making "''kame'ot''" in the form of cakes (Goldziher, in "''Festschrift zum 70ten Geburtstag Berliners''," p. 150). On a ''piyut'' found in the ''Mahzor Vitry'' and ascribed by Brody ("''Ḳonṭres ha Piyyuṭim''," p. 67, Berlin, 1894) to Killir, see Max Weisz in "''Monatsschrift''," xli. 145.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eleazar ben Killir」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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