Kalir

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.

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 Rosh. Brochos, ch. 5, siman 21. ). 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.

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