The religious differences between men and women in shtetls were not only defined by the public and private spheres, the contrast was also found in prayer. Given no formal religious education, women were unable to read or speak Hebrew, a language that all important religious texts would have been in at the time. Written specifically for (and sometimes by) women, tkhines were prayers that were designed to fit the lives of Jewish women. Unlike traditional Jewish prayers accessible to men, they were written in informal yiddish and were made to be recited anywhere, not just in the synagogue.

Hebrew, known as the “holy tongue” was much more formal and was not casually spoken within the home. Yiddish, however, was much more informal and was the primary language spoken by Jews at the time. Praying in Yiddish was indicative of the personal connection that women had with God, addressing him in the same language that they would speak to their friends and family with.

Not only was the language different, the structure of the prayers themselves were as well. They often began by addressing God directly, calling upon him by name. In many prayers, there were also spaces where women would insert their own name as if they were speaking to a friend, further pushing their intimate relationship with religion.

While some tkhines were intended to be recited within a synagogue, the majority of tkhines were written for significant domestic events: prayers for marriage, for the first day of your period, for the new moon, for bathing. They were deeply spiritual in nature and give one a look into the significant moments in a Jewish woman’s life during this period.

These prayers were passionate and emotional, they were representative of the close bond that women had with their God and with spirituality. Their casual and personal nature is very clear while reading them, something that is absent from the formal prayers and religious rites that men took part in. Tkhines are an example of how women can take something that is seen as mundane and unmiraculous and turn it into something that has deep spiritual meaning and weight.