Tkhines or teḥinot (Yiddish: תְּחִנּוֹת, lit. 'supplications', pronounced [tˈxɪnəs] or Hebrew: pronounced [tχiˈnot]) may refer to Yiddish prayers and devotions, usually personal and from a female viewpoint, or collections of such prayers. They were written for Ashkenazi Jewish women who, unlike the men of the time, typically could not read Hebrew, the language of the established synagogue prayer book.[1] They were most popular from the 1600s to the early 1800s, with the first major collection of tkhines, the Seyder Tkhines, being printed in 1648.[2] Unlike Hebrew prayers, tkhines dealt with issues specific to women. Despite being for women, it is thought that many tkhines were written by men and the authorship of most tkhines is often difficult to establish, due to multiple publications of the same tkhine and the use of pseudonyms.[3][4]
- ^ Liptzin, Sol, A History of Yiddish Literature, Jonathan David Publishers, Middle Village, NY, 1972, p. 15. ISBN 0-8246-0124-6.
- ^ Weissler, Chava (1998). Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women. Boston: Beacon Press. pp. 7. ISBN 0-8070-3616-1.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:1was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kay, Devra (2004). Seyder Tkhines: The Forgotten Book of Common Prayer for Jewish Women. Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society. pp. 103–109. ISBN 0-8276-0773-3.