Eleazar Ben Killir - Biographical Details

Biographical Details

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 legend, grew jealous of Eleazar and caused his death by inserting into his shoe a scorpion whose sting proved to be fatal.

In the acrostics of his hymns he usually signs his father's name, Kalir. Eleazar's name, home, and time have been the subject of many discussions in modern Jewish literature, and some legends concerning his career have been handed down. It is now assumed that he had lived in Kirjath-sepher in the Land of Israel (Rosh to Brochos Siman 21).

His time has been set at different dates, from as early as the 6th century (basing the view on Saadiah's Sefer ha-galuy), to the end of the 10th century. Older authorities consider him to have been a teacher of the Mishnah and identify him either with Eleazar b. 'Arak or with Eleazar b. Simeon (See Ma'adanei Yom Tov to Brochos, ch. 5, gloss 5 where he discusses whether he was the son of Rashbi or another Rabbi Shimon). He has been confounded with another poet by the name of Eleazar b. Jacob; and a book by the title of "Kebod Adonai" was ascribed to him by Botarel.

Kalir's hymns early became an object of study and of Kabbalistic exegesis, as his personality was a mystery. It was related that heavenly fire surrounded him when he wrote the "Ve'hachayos" in Kedushah for Rosh Hashanah; that he himself ascended to heaven and there learned from the angels the secret of writing alphabetical hymns; and that his teacher Yannai, jealous of his superior knowledge, placed in his shoe a scorpion, which was the cause of his death.

Modern research points to the probability that he and his teacher were Palestinian Jews; and since Yannai is known to have been one of the halakic authorities of Anan ben David, the alleged founder of Karaism, and must therefore have lived a considerable time earlier than he had, Kalir's time may be fixed with some probability as the first half of the 7th century.

Although much, perhaps most, of Qallir's work remains unpublished, Shulamit Elizur has published three volumes of his poetry, and continues to work on his work.