He conducted his path blamelessly

Eleazar be-Rabbi Qillar

10th Century

He conducted his path blamelessly, 
and therefore was spared from the raging deluge: 
This is the line of Noah: Noah was a righteous, blameless man.
 
Blameless man—his stock was faithfully made three. 
The residents of the earth are listed as theirs:
Noah begat three sons.
Sons [of his contemporaries] proclaimed horrors on the foolish earth,
saying [blasphemously], “What is Shaddai in the heavens?”
The world was corrupted in front of God.
God—I will give thanks to His name when He fixes my breach.
   I will express mention of His vast goodness.
   Lord, Your name is eternal; Lord, Your mention is for all generations—O Holy One!
They lusted after lewdness and idolatry, and the food came upon them.
They kidnapped women, to corrupt their nakedness:
God saw the land, and lo, it was corrupt.
Corrupt—when those who strayed perverted their path.
[God] plotted to bring upon them a painful deluge:
And God said to Noah: “The end of all flesh—it has come.”
It has come—My rage upon them, to turn their glow into shame,
to wipe out their existence! I will not forgive their crime!
Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.
Gopher wood shall be its material.
   The many beasts will be with you, and you will be successful.
   And you will be blessed by the faithful God—the Holy One.
The ark’s appearance, how to make it,
the shining One instructed, to set it right:
This is how you should make it.
It—finish it and set it up,
until [the punishment for] crime and guilt is over.
Make a light for the ark.
The ark—make it in order to hide from the raging deluge!
The One who measures the waters with His palm commanded him:
Behold, I am bringing the food, water!
Water—in it, the evildoers were snatched up.
   He strangled them all, drowning them. 
   To thereby inscribe that whoever hardens the heart will fall into disaster—said the Holy One.

Translated by Gabriel Wasserman.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

Engage with this Source

This yotser (a liturgical poem written for the first blessing before the Shema‘, which begins “He who creates [yotser] light”) was intended for recitation on the Sabbath, when the biblical portion of Noah was read. Accordingly, each stanza of the poem ends with a successive verse from Genesis 6:9-17.

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Related Guide

Early Medieval Liturgical Poetry (Piyyut)

7th to 12th Century

Creator Bio

Eleazar be-Rabbi Qillar

10th Century

Eleazar be-Rabbi Qillar was unknown before the discovery of poems by him in the Cairo Geniza, signed with his name in an acrostic. Because his name is so similar to that of the seventh-century Eleazar be-Rabbi Qillir, Qillar’s identity has only recently been established. The poems preserved in Qillar’s name are all yotserot. A yotser is meant to be recited inside the blessing before the Shema‘ that begins “He who creates (yotser) light.”

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