MENAHEM BEN MACHIR:

By: Cyrus Adler, M. Seligsohn

German liturgist of the eleventh century; a native of Ratisbon. His grandfather, also called Menahem b. Machir, was a nephew of Gershom b. Judah, and he himself was a cousin of Isaac b. Judah, Rashi's teacher. He is quoted in Rashi's "Pardes" (21d, 33c) and in the "Liḳḳuṭe Pardes" (19b; comp. "Pisḳe Reḳanaṭi," No. 589). Menahėm witnessed the Jewish massacres of 1096 in Germany and commemorated them in a number of seliḥot. His piyyuṭim include: "Adam be-ḳum," for the Esther fast (quoted in Tos. to Ḥag. 11a); "Aḥalleh et pene Adonai," for Yom Kippur minḥah; "Amarer ba-beki," for the 17th of Tammuz; "Lammah Adonai ta'amod" (in ten strophes); a "ḳinah" for the 9th of Ab, beginning "Ebel a'orer"; five "yoẓerot," including one for the "Naḥamu" Sabbath and one for the "Shubah" Sabbath; three "ofannim"; three "zulatot"; "Kehosha'ta elim," a "hosha'na" for the Sabbath of Tabernacles; "Ma'arib," for the Feast of Tabernacles; "Nishmat," to be recited on Simḥat Torah; and a "reshut " for Ḥatan Torah, to be recited on the same day. Most of his piyyuṭim are alphabetically arranged, but all of them bear the author's signature.

A. M. Sel.