VaYe'ehav Omen

VaYe'ehav Omen (Hebrew: וַיֶאֱהַב אוֹמֵן יְתוֹמַת הֶגֶן, romanized: Vayyeʾehav ʾŌmen Yěṯōmaṯ Heḡen, lit. 'And the stepfather [Mordecai] loved and raised the worthy orphan [Esther]') is a Hebrew piyyut recited during the repetition of the Amidah (known as a kerovah) on Purim, composed by Eleazar beRabbi Qallir the seventh century CE. The recitation of this piyyut was widespread during the period of the Cairo Genizah, in which many copies were discovered. The piyyut arrived in Europe and entered the Ashkenazi nusach, in which it was recited during Shacharit of Purim. Following the loss of prominence of piyyutim in the Ashkenazi rite, many communities no longer recite this piyyut. Nonetheless, it remains widely printed in siddurim. The piyyut focuses primarily on the story of the Book of Esther, primarily based on Rabbinic midrash relating to the book. The language of the piyyut is characteristic of Qallir. Several words are used to allude to sections of the Book of Esther or midrash. His unique and innovative style includes shortening words (e.g. "הֶגֶן הנגזר" from "הגונה", or "חַל" from "חילל"), attaching pronominal letters to verbs (e.g. כְּחָז as a short form of "כאשר חזה"), and a preference to use literary epithets instead of proper names (e.g., referring to Mordecai as אוֹמֵן, "stepfather," based on Esther 2:7). The poem rhymes and has a complex structure, containing an acrostic of the composer's full name (Hebrew: אלעזר בירבי קיליר חזק, lit. 'Elazar birebi Qallir, be strong!'), an alphabetical acrostic, and two entire verses from the Book of Esther, where a single word of each appears in each stanza in order. Each of the eighteen verses corresponds to one of the Eighteen Benedictions of the Amidah. That no verse corresponds to the blessing "מצמיח קרן ישועה" in the Amidah is unsurprising, since this prayer was considered to be part of the Boneh Yerushalayim (Hebrew: בּוֹנֵה יְרוּשָׁלָיִם, lit. 'Builder of Jerusalem') prayer in Eretz Israel during the time of the composition of the piyyut. This fact was not always known historically, however, leading to various interpretations of the omission in later Ashkenazi rabbinic literature. An expanded version of the piyyut was found in some copies of the piyyut found in the Cairo Genizah, which include additional verses in each stanza. These additional verses are written in a simpler style than the main verses, and therefore are probably not part of the original poem. The extra portions were likely added to the kerovah by the author in a later revision, resulting in two distinct versions. The two versions serve as a tool for researchers to analyze different styles of the author's work. In Birkat HaMinim, several long piyyutim were added to the kerovah, but their origins remain unknown.