THE EARLY PERIOD IN EREṢ YISRA'EL

GENERAL BACKGROUND

THE LITURGICAL HYMN or piyyuṭ is by definition a poetic work that is chanted and designed by its composer (payṭan) for use in Jewish worship. It is necessary to distinguish between the term piyyuṭ (from the Greek poietes) as a general designation of Hebrew poetry, such as the rabbinic mnemonic on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet (in bŠab 104a), and its specific function as part of the synagogue service. We will also differentiate between the older obligatory prayers (tefillah šel hovah) such as the šema‘, the ‘amidah, the qeduššah (based on Isa. 6: 3), the blessings of the priests (birkat ha-kohanim), the blessings after meals (birkat ha-mazon), the blessings over the wine on the Sabbath (qidduš) and the blessings over the wine at the end of the Sabbath (havdalah), among others, and the later poetic additions to the Jew- ish liturgy. Our primary focus will be on the latter embellishments of the older fixed prayers. These embellishments include piyyuṭim for the benedictions of the šema’ and ‘amidah, and a wide variety of penitentials (seliḥot), elegies, epithalamia and life-cycle celebrations.

In Judeo-Arabic circles the musical component of the liturgical hymn was in eight modes (octoechos), as attested by Sa'adyah Ga'on and Abraham Ibn Ezra (in his commentary on Ps. 6: 1). It is likely that the Franco-German synagogues also employed this eightfold system of modality, as reported by the Jewish traveller Petahyah b. Jacob of Ratisbon. The piyyuṭ is also known by the Arabicized term ḥizānah derived from the Hebrew ḥazzan, a synagogue official who, in talmudic times, among his other responsibilities such as bringing out the Torah scrolls for the weekly reading and sounding the šofar heralding the Sabbath and festivals, would also chant the prayers when requested. With the increase in the number and variety of liturgical works he assumed the responsibility of selecting and chanting the appropriate hymns and on occasion composing new ones. He now became the ḥazzan ha-keneset, synagogue cantor, or šeliaḥ ṣibbur, the emissary of the congrega- tion before God, and received a stipend for his services.