Tkhines: The Rich World of Yiddish Women's Prayers

   Wednesdays, 7-8:30 pm.  In-person or via Zoom

•     November 15, 29
•     December 6

Join us for an exploration of one of the most creative and popular Jewish liturgical genres. Tkhines, women's prayers, originally written in Yiddish, weave together heightened, poetic, and liturgical language with a familiar, vernacular, and deeply personal way of speaking with the Divine. We will get to read tkhines for holidays,  quotidian tasks, and historical events (e.g. special prayers for war or for the souls lost on the Titanic) in order to understand how these prayers offered religious connection, education, and structure for women of Eastern Europe. As we consider the prayers' biblical and midrashic allusions and emotional scope of the prayer, we will reflect on our own practices and perceptions of prayer in light of this genre. Texts will be studied in English alongside the original Yiddish.

Gabe Miner is in his final year of rabbinical school at HUC-JIR. Gabe holds an MA in Jewish Education from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and has taught learners of all ages in synagogues, camps, day schools, universities, youth organizations, and travel programs both local and abroad. Gabe taught Yiddish at the Boston Workers Circle as a participant in the Yiddish Book Center's Pedagogy Fellowship. Gabe is also an award-winning playwright and a former axe-throwing coach who has written digital media for Shalom Sesame and The Dodo Kids. Gabe is the creator of VirtualSeder.org, a collection of more than 75 short videos from educators, scholars, and clergy from around the world and across denominations. Prior to starting HUC, Gabe served as Youth Director at Town and Village for seven years.

Free for T&V Members*; $18 for General Admission. 

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