Kalir rightly felt that if Hebrew was to remain a living tongue, it was absurd to restrict the language to the vocabulary of the Bible.

Hence he invented many new verbs from nouns.
But his inventiveness was less marked than his learning.

"With the permission of God, I will speak in riddles," says Kalir in opening the prayer for dew.

The riddles are mainly clever allusions to the Midrash.
It has been pointed out that these allusions are often tasteless and obscure.

But they are more often beautiful and inspiring.