diff --git a/src/jmteb/embedders/sbert_embedder.py b/src/jmteb/embedders/sbert_embedder.py
index 6fbc48e..dbed505 100644
--- a/src/jmteb/embedders/sbert_embedder.py
+++ b/src/jmteb/embedders/sbert_embedder.py
@@ -16,29 +16,21 @@ def __init__(
         device: str | None = None,
         normalize_embeddings: bool = False,
         max_seq_length: int | None = None,
-        tokenizer_padding_side: str | None = None,
         add_eos: bool = False,
+        tokenizer_kwargs: dict | None = None,
     ) -> None:
-        self.model = SentenceTransformer(model_name_or_path, trust_remote_code=True)
+        self.model = SentenceTransformer(model_name_or_path, trust_remote_code=True, tokenizer_kwargs=tokenizer_kwargs)
         if max_seq_length:
             self.model.max_seq_length = max_seq_length
-        if tokenizer_padding_side:
-            try:
-                self.model.tokenizer.padding_side = "right"
-            except AttributeError:
-                pass
 
         self.batch_size = batch_size
         self.device = device
         self.normalize_embeddings = normalize_embeddings
         self.max_seq_length = max_seq_length
-        self.tokenizer_padding_side = tokenizer_padding_side
         self.add_eos = add_eos
 
         if self.max_seq_length:
             self.model.max_seq_length = self.max_seq_length
-        if self.tokenizer_padding_side:
-            setattr(self.model.tokenizer, "padding_side", self.tokenizer_padding_side)
 
     def encode(self, text: str | list[str], prompt: str | None = None) -> np.ndarray:
         if self.add_eos: