Creator Bio
Yannai
5th Century–6th Century
Yannai was a liturgical poet from the Galilee region in Palestine. His innovations in piyyut, including the use of acrostic and end rhyme, and the composition of poems for weekday services, sparked the era of classical piyyut that lasted from the fifth to the eighth centuries. Most of his works were lost until their discovery in the Cairo Geniza in the nineteenth century. The Byzantine poet Eleazar be-Rabbi Qillir was likely one of Yannai’s pupils.
Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator
Primary Source
‘Oni pitrei raḥamatayim (The Father’s Firstborn Vigor)
The [father’s firstborn] vigor, [and] those who opened [their mothers’] wombs
Y…
Primary Source
’Em ka-yonah (A Mother Like a Dove)
A mother [Sarah] like a dove in the clefts of the rock…