(pl. teḥinnot; "supplication"). Private supplication recited by the individual worshiper, usually in addition to the prescribed prayers, in accordance with the teaching that prayer should never become a fixed routine but rather a supplication before God for mercy (Avot 2:18). Such entreaties are known from biblical times (Jer. 37:20; Ps. 55:2). During the talmudic period, improvised teḥinnot were said privately by the individual worshiper after the Amidah, but these were later replaced by the fixed Taḥanun prayer, with an opportunity left for individual supplications in the framework of the Amidah.
In the course of time, many private devotions, by known rabbinic figures and otherwise unknown persons alike, have been incorporated into the corpus of the regular prayer book. A well-known example of this is the Yehi Ratson, with which Rav used to conclude the Amidah prayer and which now serves as a preamble to the blessing for the New Month.
Large numbers of teḥinnot have been composed throughout the Jewish world in varying styles and vernaculars/ These include kabbalistic devotions identifiable by the opening phrase, "May it be Your will" or "Master of the Universe"; ingenious compositions in which every word begins with the same letter of the alphabet; prayers to be said before lighting the Sabbath candles or crossing an ocean or when visiting a cemetery; supplications couched in sophisticated and fluent Hebrew, in Aramaic, and in the Judaic dialects of the various Diaspora communities. While some teḥinnot are preserved in the prayer book, the vast majority are collected in separate volumes. Brochures of devotional prayers for women in Yiddish were known as tekhines (i.e., teḥinnot).
