Meir ben Isaac

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Meir ben Isaak (born: mid-11th century; died before 1096) (also: Schliach Sibbur ) was Chasan (cantor) / “prayer leader” of the Jewish community of Worms . He became known as the poet of Pijjutim .

family

Knowledge of his person and his individual achievements is limited due to the sources, and little is known about his family. He himself only mentions in one text that his paternal grandfather's name was "Samuel". Meir ben Isaak was married and had two sons, Isaac and Jacob. Isaac was murdered during the persecution of the Jews at the time of the First Crusade in 1096. The literature also claims that Meir ben Isaak's wife was also murdered in this pogrom, but there is no evidence for this.

It is known that Raschi and Meir ben Isaak met around 1060 while studying with Raschi in Worms. Rashi praised Meir ben Isaac's knowledge in his work.

In the memorial prayer of the Worms congregation he was mentioned for centuries with the formula “he opened the eyes of Israel with his piyutim”.

Act

Meir ben Isaak is regarded as an authority on the liturgy of worship and the piyutim. The introduction of liturgical peculiarities is ascribed to him, which spread through adoption in neighboring communities in Rhenish Judaism. Liturgical matters form the main part of the tradition received from his works, also because the texts were used for centuries in the worship of German communities.

48 pijjutim are ascribed to him, 44 of which can be safely assigned to him, eight of them are written in Aramaic , all others in Hebrew . He left a number of poems, wedding songs and lamentations and was popular as a poet throughout the Middle Ages .

Meir ben Isaak was also active as a Bible exegete . However, there is only indirect evidence of this from other authors who quote him. Rashi is one of these. He has not received any work on legal texts , but this does not rule out that he also dealt with it.

literature

  • Ismar Elbogen : From the beginnings of the synagogue in Worms . In: Ernst Róth: Festschrift for the rededication of the Old Synagogue in Worms . Ner Tamid Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1961, pp. 198-202.
  • Ismar Elbogen u. a. (Hg): Germania Judaica 1: From the oldest times to 1238 . Mohr (Paul Siebeck), Tübingen 1963.
  • Allan F. Lavin: The Liturgical Poems of Meir bar Isaak = Dissertation to The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Ann Arbor, MI, 1984.
  • Fritz Reuter : Warmaisa: 1000 years of Jews in Worms . 3. Edition. Self-published, Worms 2009. ISBN 978-3-8391-0201-5
  • Leopold Zunz : literary history of synagogal poetry. ND of the Berlin 1865 edition: Georg Olms, Hildesheim 1966.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elbogen: Germania Judaica , p. 447.
  2. ↑ Lavin, p. 3.
  3. ^ Elbogen: Germania Judaica , p. 446.
  4. ↑ Lavin, p. 3.
  5. ^ Elbogen: Germania Judaica , p. 447.
  6. ↑ ZB Zunz, p. 146.
  7. ↑ Lavin, p. 3.
  8. ^ Elbogen: From the beginning , p. 198.
  9. ↑ Lavin, p. 8.
  10. ^ Elbogen: Germania Judaica , p. 446.
  11. ↑ Lavin, p. 5.
  12. ↑ Lavin, p. 8.
  13. ↑ Lavin, p. 1. Lavin has edited and commented on all of them in his work ( Hebrew ).
  14. ↑ Lavin, p. 8.
  15. ↑ Lavin, p. 2.
  16. ↑ Catalog raisonné (incomplete) in: Zunz, pp. 146–152.
  17. ^ Elbogen: Germania Judaica , p. 446.
  18. ↑ Lavin, p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Meir ben Isaac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schliach Sibbur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chasan / Cantor
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century
DATE OF DEATH before 1096