Piyyut

A ''piyyut'' or ''piyut'' (plural piyyutim or piyutim, he, פִּיּוּטִים / פיוטים, פִּיּוּט / פיוט ; from Greek ποιητής ''poiētḗs'' "poet") is a Jewish liturgical poem, usually designated to be sung, chanted, or recited during religious services. ''Piyyutim'' have been written since Temple times. Most ''piyyutim'' are in Hebrew or Aramaic, and most follow some poetic scheme, such as an acrostic following the order of the Hebrew alphabet or spelling out the name of the author.

Many ''piyyutim'' are familiar to regular attendees of synagogue services. For example, the best-known ''piyyut'' may be '' Adon Olam'' ("Master of the World"). Its poetic form consists of a repeated rhythmic pattern of short-long-long-long (the so-called hazaj meter), and it is so beloved that it is often sung at the conclusion of many synagogue services, after the ritual nightly recitation of the Shema, and during the morning ritual of putting on tefillin phylacteries. Another beloved ''piyyut'' is '' Yigdal'' ("May God be Hallowed"), which is based upon the Thirteen Principles of Faith set forth by Maimonides.

Important scholars of ''piyyut'' today include Shulamit Elizur and Joseph Yahalom, both at Hebrew University.

The author of a ''piyyut'' is known as a ''paytan'' or ''payyetan'' (פייטן); plural ''paytanim'' (פייטנים).

History

The ''Eretz Yisrael'' school

The earliest ''piyyutim'' date from the Talmudic () and Geonic periods (). They were "overwhelmingly rom retz Yisraelor its neighbor Syria, ecauseonly there was the Hebrew language sufficiently cultivated that it could be managed with stylistic correctness, and only there could it be made to speak so expressively."Goldschmidt, D, "Machzor for Rosh Hashana" p.xxxi. Leo Baeck Institute, 1970 The earliest Eretz Yisrael prayer manuscripts, found in the Cairo Genizah, often consist of ''piyyutim'', as these were the parts of the liturgy that required to be written down: the wording of the basic prayers was generally known by heart, and there was supposed to be a prohibition of writing them down. It is not always clear from the manuscripts whether these ''piyyutim'', which often elaborated the themes of the basic prayers, were intended to supplement them or to replace them, or indeed whether they originated in a time before the basic prayers had become fixed. The ''piyyutim'', in particular those of Eleazar Kalir, were often in very cryptic and allusive language, with copious reference to Midrash.

Originally, the word ''piyyut'' designated every type of sacred poetry, but as usage developed, the term came to designate only poems of hymn character. The ''piyyutim'' were usually composed by a talented rabbinic poet, and depending on the ''piyyut''’s reception by the community determined whether it would pass the test of time. By looking at the composers of the piyyutim, one is able to see which family names were part of the Middle Eastern community, and which '' hachamim'' were prominent and well established. The composers of various ''piyyutim'' usually used acrostic form in order to hint their identity in the ''piyyut'' itself. Since prayer books were limited at the time, many ''piyyutim'' have repeating stanzas that the congregation would respond to followed by the hazzan’s recitations.

The additions of the ''piyyutim'' to the services were mostly used as an embellishment to the services and to make it more enjoyable to the congregation. As to the origin of the ''piyyut's'' implementation, there is a theory that this had to do with restrictions on Jewish prayer. Samau'al Ibn Yahya al-Maghribi, a Jewish convert to Islam in the twelfth century, wrote that the Persians prohibited Jews from holding prayer services. "When the Jews saw that the Persians persisted in obstructing their prayer, they invented invocations into which they admixed passages from their prayers (the ''piyyut'') … and set numerous tunes to them". They would assemble at prayer time in order to read and chant the ''piyyutim''. The difference between that and prayer is that the prayer is without melody and is read only by the person conducting the service, whereas in the recitation of the ''piyyut'', the cantor is assisted by the congregation in chanting melodies. "When the Persians rebuked them for this, the Jews sometimes asserted that they were singing, and sometimes ourning over their situations" When the Muslims took over and allowed Jews ''dhimmi'' status, prayer became permissible for the Jews, and the ''piyyut'' had become a commendable tradition for holidays and other joyous occasions.

The use of ''piyyut'' was always considered an Eretz Yisrael speciality: the Babylonian Geonim made every effort to discourage it and restore what they regarded as the statutory wording of the prayers, holding that "any azzanwho uses ''piyyut'' thereby gives evidence that he is no scholar". It is not always clear whether their main objection was to any use of ''piyyutim'' at all or only to their intruding into the heart of the statutory prayers.

For these reasons, scholars classifying the liturgies of later periods usually hold that, the more a given liturgy makes use of ''piyyutim'', the more likely it is to reflect Eretz Yisrael as opposed to Babylonian influence. The framers of the Sephardic liturgy took the Geonic strictures seriously, and for this reason the early Eretz Yisrael ''piyyutim'', such as those of Kalir, do not survive in the Sephardic rite, though they do in the Ashkenazic and Italian rites.

The medieval Spanish school

In the later Middle Ages, however, Spanish-Jewish poets such as Judah Halevi, Ibn Gabirol, Abraham ibn Ezra and Moses ibn Ezra composed quantities of religious poetry, in correct Biblical Hebrew and strict Arabic metres. Many of these poems have been incorporated into the Sephardic, and to a lesser extent the other, rites, and may be regarded as a second generation of ''piyyut''.

The Kabbalistic school of Isaac Luria and his followers, which used an adapted Sephardic liturgy, disapproved of the Spanish ''piyyutim'', regarding them as spiritually inauthentic, and invoked the Geonic strictures to have them either eliminated from the service or moved away from the core parts of it. Their disapproval did not extend to ''piyyutim'' of the early Eretz Yisrael school, which they regarded as an authentic part of the Talmudic-rabbinic tradition. Although Luria himself would go to Ashkenazic communities at times when they would recite ''piyyutim'' in order to recite those from the Eretz Yisrael school, no Sephardic community reinstituted these ''piyyutim'', presumably because these had already been eliminated from the service and they regarded it as too late to put them back. (The Kabbalists, and their successors, also wrote ''piyyutim'' of their own.) For this reason, some ''piyyutim'' of the Spanish school survive in their original position in the Spanish and Portuguese rite but have been eliminated or moved in the Syrian and other Oriental rites. Syrian Jews preserve some of them for extra-liturgical use as pizmonim.

Well-known ''piyyutim''

What follows is a chart of some of the best-known and most-beloved ''piyyutim''. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it tries to provide a flavor of the variety of poetic schemes and occasions for which these poems were written. Many of the ''piyyutim'' marked as being recited on Shabbat are songs traditionally sung as part of the home ritual observance of Shabbat and also known as ''zemirot'' ("Songs/Melodies").

See also

* David Hakohen
*Genres of Piyyut
*Jewish services

References

External links

Piyut site
- audio recordings of piyyutim, along with corresponding lyrics in Hebrew

Jewish Encyclopedia article on piyyutim

Center of Jewish Music and Poetry

{{Authority control

Hebrew poetry
Aramaic-language songs