Jannai (poet)

Jannai (also: Jannaj , Hebrew יניי) was one of the oldest Jewish liturgical poets ( Paitanim ) known by name . Some of them were found again in the Genisa of Cairo .

He lived in Palestine , his lifetime is given differently (at the earliest after 300, at the latest after 700), whereby a later date (after 500) is most likely.

Jannai created the basis for the classical pijjut in terms of genre, style and technology (end rhyme, stanzas) and was the first to note his authorship by name acrostic . As a genre, Qerobah (poetic decoration of the Schmone essre ) or Qeduschta (special form of Qerobah ) dominate. Jannai is the first poet to write Qerobot for all weekly segments of the three-year reading cycle. His language is still crude and unpolished, content often does not go beyond the Halacha .

The numerous poetic pieces he received were known under the name Machsor Jannaj .

expenditure

• Machsor Jannaj , ed.Israel Davidson, New York 1919.
• The Liturgical Poems of Rabbi Yannai according to the Triennial Cycle of the Pentateuch and the Holidays. by Zvi Meir Rabinovitz. 2 vols. Jerusalem 1985/87.

literature

• Ismar Elbogen , article JANNAJ, Pajtan , in: Jüdisches Lexikon , Berlin 1927, Vol. III
• Hermann L. Strack and Günter Stemberger : Introduction to Talmud and Midrash . 7th edition, Beck, Munich 1982
• Salomon Wininger : Title. Vol. III, Chernivtsi 1925.