Background
Eleazar ben Killir was born circa 570. The place of his birth is unknown.
El'azar Kalir; Qalir; HaKalir
Eleazar ben Killir was born circa 570. The place of his birth is unknown.
Eleazar ben Killir 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 argues that if Yannai was a murderer then there is no way Yannai's piyutim would be so popular.
The age in which Eleazar ben Killir lived is unknown. Some (basing the view on Saadiah's Sefer ha-galuy) place him as early as the 6tb century, others regard him as belonging to the 10th century. Kalir's style is powerful but involved; he may be described as a Hebrew Browning. While some of his hymns have been lost, more than 200 of them have been embodied in the Mahzorim, i. e. , prayer-books for the cycle of the festivals. Some beautiful renderings of Kalir's poems may be found in the volumes of Davis & Adler's edition of the German Festival Prayers entitled Service of the Synagogue.