Piyyut in Enzyklopädie jüdischer Geschichte und Kultur

It is well known that the word JB^B (paytdn), liturgical poet, is the Hebrew form of the Greek -nrnfi-nns, meaning maker or creator, and that the word piyyut is derived from the same Greek root as the English words poet and poem. Although the word piyyut originally was synonymous with poetry, one may ask whether, by western standards, this ancient type of liturgical composition is real poetry or belles lettres.

In recent decades scholars have devoted tremendous energy to the study of liturgical poetry. The Cairo Geniza yielded a treasure trove of manuscripts replete with previously unknown or partially known piyyutim and selihot. The quantity of raw data crying out for sorting, classification, analysis and publication proliferated overnight. Paytanim whose names were known only from a stray reference suddenly leapt to life in all their glory. A heightened sensitivity to the differences between Babylonian and Palestinian liturgies together with attempts to reconstruct the Palestinian rite made the study of piyyutim even more urgent. Heretofore unexplained elements of piyyutim suddenly became clear when understood against the context of the Palestinian practices. At the same time, the piyyutim provided insights as to the structure of the Palestinian cycle of Torah readings, haftarah readings, and liturgical customs.

Prooftexts, 2021

I n this article, I argue that Hebrew liturgical poetry (piyyut), both in its earliest manifestations and also in later eras, bears the structural form of a destabilizing supplement to prayer. I further suggest that individual liturgical poems (piyyutim) can and should be read as supplements to the fixed prayer and therefore as a generous and risky contribution to worship. It is well known that ancient piyyutim replaced parts of prayers or were added to them, but the liturgical and poetic implications of this fact have rarely been

Zutot 2001, 2002

The First to the Fifteenth Century, 2008

in P. Schäfer , M. Himmelfarb and R. Boustan (eds.), Hekhalot Literature in Context: Between Byzantium and Babylonia (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 2013), 231-242, 2013

Scholars of Jewish mystical literature have noted from the outset that terminology and motifs from Hekhalot literature penetrated the corpus of Hebrew liturgical poetry (also known as piyyut) and, in turn, that poetic techniques from payyetanic literature influenced Hekhalot hymns. Quite naturally, the study of this interaction focused on piyyutim from late antique Palestine because they were composed roughly in the same period during which Hekhalot literature emerged. Moreover, the corpora seem to be connected regionally, if indeed Hekhalot literature stemmed from Palestine, as many scholars suggest. However, the instances of explicit intersections between payyetanic texts and Hekhalot literature from this period are rather few and, as a consequence, scholars have exhausted the available sources relatively quickly. In contrast, many piyyutim composed in medieval Europe include extensive angelological sections that use vocabulary, terminology, and motifs that are reminiscent of those found in Hekhalot literature. The primary goals of this essay are to give examples of such piyyutim, to single out their Hekhalot connections, and to consider how their study can contribute to the investigation of the reception and transmission of Hekhalot traditions in the Middle Ages.