Interest/Origin | Development | Related to Niddah |
Tkhines are prayers that were primarily developed for Jewish women, by Jewish women. They began in the seventeenth century and are now being reclaimed by Jewish women as a way to participate more fully in their religious tradition. Scholars are now researching the older tkhines to find out about the life of Jewish women in the seventeenth century. Jewish women today are writing new tkhines that can be used in a wide variety of situations. Sample of a Modern Tkhine Dear G_d, as I begin this paper, grant me the wisdom to uncover the hidden sparks of the Torah. Send me your angels to guide me on my way as I stumble through sentence construction and footnotes. Bless me with fertility of ideas as you have blessed my ancestors Sara, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Give me patience and endurance to finish this paper on time and the ability to enjoy my work in the process. See this effort as my humble way to draw closer to you and to bring humankind closer to redemption. May the wings of Shechinah hover over me as I work, keeping me safe from doubts and exhaustion. Grant me serenity in my endeavor and let me say, amen. Geela Rayzel Raphel, 1993 (Weissler 149). |
At the end of World War II there was a shift in the types of prayers written. There were noticeably more prayers for the synagogue and fewer for the home. A trend juxtaposed with this shift is that women's religious life was moving more into the public sphere. This transition could very well have been the result of improvements in education for women. The tkhines are viewed as a way for women to reclaim their spirituality. In order to accomplish this goal new tkhines have to been written in order to keep the prayers as relevant to modern culture as possible. The trend that has brought us into this decade is a focus on emotional and psychological needs rather than material needs. "Preserving the text of the techinas would not have been enough. Presenting them as the obscure relic of an era long past simply increases our loss. These techinas are a formula for dialogue, a form of address with God. They are an opportunity for today's woman to find her voice and reconnect her emuna, her faith, as if reconnecting a severed limb. By attaching ourselves to the voices of our grandmothers, we can again become whole." (Weissler 159).
Conservative Approach:
There are different approaches to the resurgence of interest in the tkhines. In the Conservative movement a daily and Sabbath prayer book was published in 1985. This book has the dual purpose of giving women a voice and encouraging private prayer. The prayers included in this book recognize the importance of experiencing a private religious life as well as the public practice of religion which is usually stressed. The personal prayers published in this book resemble the tkhines in their content and literary style. In fitting with modern trends most of the concerns brought up in this prayer book are about finding meaning, hope, and love along with understanding in the family.
Orthodox Approach:
Recently, feminist prayers and rituals have become increasingly popular in Orthodox Judaism. New tkhines have been written to be performed at a strikingly diverse group of occasions. Rituals and prayers have sprung up around pregnancy, postpartum period, naming a daughter, infertility, hysterectomy, divorce, becoming a vegetarian, becoming "a woman of vision," Hanukkah, Sukkot, and more.
Traditional Tkhines related to niddah
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Bibliography
Weissler, Chava. "Mizvot Built into the Body: Tkhines for Niddah, Pregnancy, and Childbirth", in Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, ed., People of the Body. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992.
Weissler, Chava. Voices of the Matriarchs: Listening to the Prayers of Early Modern Jewish Women. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998.
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