| Yannai Israel/Palestine (6th Century) Timeline Jewish Poems by Yannai Books - Links |
Yannai lived in Palestine in the 6th century. An Ashkenazi tradition says that Yannai was the teacher of Eleazar ben Kallir, the best known of the classical paytanim (Jewish liturgical poets). There has even been a legend suggesting that Yannai grew jealous of his talented student and killed him by placing a scorpion in ben Kallir's shoe, though the written tale calls the story into question by adding, "May God forgive all those who say this of Yannai -- if it did not really happen."
Yannai is now thought of as the first of the great classical paytanim, and the first to use rhyme and acrostics in his works, which later became the standard in this form of Jewish sacred poetry.
Poems by Yannai
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| The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse |
Related Links
JewishEncyclopedia.com -- Yannai
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=15&letter=Y
A brief article on Yannai, with a few short excerpts.
Piyyut: The Poetry of Worship
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/940908_Piyyut.html
A short article on piyyut poetry, with several references to Yannai.
