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On the first day of Rosh Hashanah at musaf, Ashkenazim recite piyyutim as part of the first three berachot of the amidah, composed by R. Elazar HaKalir. On the second day, no such piyyutim are recited and we find no piyyutim until (lekeil orech din and) unetaneh tokef and kedushah.

From Double AA I understand that this form of piyyut is unusual for a musaf amidah. (The only other time we find them is on Yom Kippur.) So my question is, why do these piyyutim appear for the first day of Rosh Hashanah? And, if there is some reason why they are appropriate for Rosh Hashanah, why only on the first day and not the second?

(I understand that for whatever reason R. Elazar HaKalir only wrote one set of piyyutim for Rosh Hashanah, but given that he felt it was appropriate to have this form of piyyut at musaf, why did no-one else compose piyyutim for musaf of the second day, like R. Shimon HaGadol did for shacharit of the second day?)

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  • What's about תפילת טל and תפילת גשם then? – Kazi bácsi Sep 24 '17 at 15:32
  • @kazi that's a Shivata not a Kedushta. Different poetic structure. Shivata is the normal Musaf Piyut form, like on Shabbat Shekalim. – Double AA♦ Sep 24 '17 at 16:31
  • One easy way to tell the difference between the two is whether the piyyutim are prefaced by the introdutory missod. As far as I recall we have this whenever piyyutim are recited in shacharit, indicating that they are kedushtot, but never at musaf (apart from Yom Kippur and first day Rosh Hashanah), where we have shivatot. – Joel K Sep 25 '17 at 7:43
  • Interestingly, although this is the Minhog Ashkenaz and Minhog Polin (albeit Ashkenaz does not do לא-ל עורך דין), Minhag Tzorfas (France) does have a full Kerovo here on page 234 beureihatefila.com/files/Goldschmidt_Machzor_Rosh_Hashonah.pdf – Joshua Pearl Oct 25 '17 at 18:01
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    @magicker72 Then I stand by Shivata being the normal Musaf form, even if the use of a form is minimal. It's the default form for any 7-blessing repetition without Kedusha [as determined by the Kedusha practice in old israel]. – Double AA♦ Jun 24 '20 at 20:31

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