Ein Keloheinu - Text - The Original Version

The Original Version

The Hebrew text is as it appears in all siddurim, both Askenazic and Sephardic.
° The last line of the piyut itself is "You are our Savior."
The Ashkenazic liturgy follows this immediately (as part of the chanting) with "You are the one before whom ...." followed by a Talmudic description of the mixing of the incense spices for the Temple.
°° The Sephard, and the Sephardic/Mizrahi liturgies follow the last line of the piyut with the words, "You will save us," followed by the quotation of Psalm 102:14, "You will arise ...."

Among Ashenazim, the additional line and the Talmudic lesson on the making of incense which follows it is considered optional and so that line and lesson might be omitted.

This prayer appears in the liturgy as early as the Siddur Rav Amram (ca 875) - where the first verse is "Who is like ..." and the second verse is "There is none like ...", but the present sequence appears in the Mahzor Vitry and in Rashi (both late 11th century) and a century later in Maimonides. The present sequence is viewed as, first, a declaration against all other religions, then a challenge to all other religions, and thereafter as worship. Additionally, Abudraham (ca. 1340) pointed that that the initial "א" from the first verse, the "מ" from the second, and the "נ" from the third formed Amen, and taking the Barukh from the fourth verse and the Atah from the final verse, together produce "Amen. Blessed are Thou" - as if the end of one prayer and the beginning of another, and this serves as a suitable mnemonic to keep the verses in proper sequence.