THE PROPHET
JEREMIAH
BY THE
CAVE OF MACHPELAH
Elasar ben Kalir's birthplace is unknown, and the dates given for his birth range from 800 to 1000 C.E. He was the creator of a new form of Piyutim, and was followed by an imitative school of Paitanim. His style is condensed, obscure, and full of allusions to Hagadic passages. Of this allusive style, the first line of the seventh stanza in the following poem (סח ילד בתלף) may be taken as an example. Tradition makes Jacob linger for fourteen years, on his way to Mesopotamia, in the houses of study of Shem and Eber. Other legends are told of Jacob's love of learning.—Kalir's compositions number over two hundred.
Stanza 1, line 12, Leviticus xxvi, 45.
Stanza 2, line 10, Jeremiah v, 12.
Stanza 3, line 6, Genesis xv, 1.
Stanza 5, line 6, Leviticus xxvi, 42.
Stanza 6, line 11, 2 Chronicles xxiv, 20.
Stanza 7, line 1, Jacob. See Bereshith Rabbah, 63: 6 and 68: 5; and Talmud Babli, Megillah 16b and 17a; line 12, Jeremiah li, 5.
