Seyder Tkhines: The Forgotten Book of Common Prayer for Jewish Women
According to Kay, "Jewish women today who are seeking a precedent for women’s prayer need look no further" than the "seyder thkines," or Yiddish prayer books for women that were popular in the mid- to late 17th century. Now largely forgotten, these works of popular piety emerged in a time of remarkable messianic expectation and fervent holiness. Kay, who began researching these prayer books for her doctoral dissertation, writes that the prayer books flourished for approximately three generations and had no precedents in the history of Jewish prayer, since they were vernacular prayers written by and for women. Kay traces the development of the cottage industry of these prayer books, which proved to be financially profitable for printers and spiritually beneficial for women, who did not participate in many of the male-oriented rituals in the synagogue. Particularly interesting is a prayer book written specifically for an unnamed pregnant woman, who is encouraged to repent of her sins and be ever-ready for a possible departure from this world. One prayer explicitly beseeches God for an easy labor and a safe delivery. Kay does readers a great service by collecting these historic prayers into this volume and providing helpful commentary.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.