What is Hevrutah? Guide to Torah Study #1

What is Hevrutah? - Chevrutah  - חברותה

Gal eynai v'abita niflaot mi'toratecha
Uncover my eyes that I may behold wonders from your Torah -- Psalm 119:18

"Make a teacher for yourself and acquire yourself a friend. Judge everyone favorably -- Mishna, Pirkei Avot 1:6

Hevrutah study is the traditional Jewish practice of learning with a partner. Partners take turns reading a text aloud then embark on a journey of exploration and discussion, often including the views of commentators in the dialogue. They share reactions, formulate insights and partake in an exchange of ideas that encourages freedom of expression and stimulates creative thinking.

The word hevrutah comes from the same Hebrew root as haver, “friend” and havurah, “community of friends”. A hevrutah is someone who becomes your study partner. Learning in this way often leads to a special friendship. Hevrutah is usually done in pairs but can be expanded to small group study.

Unlike traditional frontal learning where wisdom emanates from the teacher, in hevrutah the two partners form an interactive, creative. teaching/learning unit. In this way each partner taps into innate wisdom and discovers they are indeed teacher as well as student.

Torah texts have large gaps in the narrative and with Hebrew words having multiple meanings there is no single precise way to interpret and read meaning into the text. Biblical text, therefore, offers a fertile field for projection and imagination upon which every generation of students and teachers gazes and garners meaning for living.

For some, the intellectual approach to study may lead to an emotional “aha!” Others may find that emotion offers a doorway to the intellect as various levels of understanding emerge. Either way, hevrutah is much more than an intellectual challenge. It involves very human qualities of emotion, creativity and intuition and for this reason it can be viewed as a holistic form of study that involves all of the self.

Some tips on technique:

1.. Keep in mind that hevrutah offers an opportunity to experience how less can be more. As you study a piece of writing and explore its depths, revelations occur that might be otherwise be missed by giving it a quick read. Hevrutah is not a race to cover the most ground rather it is a challenge to dig the deepest.

2. Avoid debating. The aim of hevrutah is not to determine who is correct rather its value lies in building on differences so as to create novel and meaningful insights. In practical terms this requires that the word and is used instead of but. The word but negates, the word and includes.

3. In these sessions the leaders are to function more as facilitators and catalysts than teachers. Where there is didactic teaching this is oriented more to the process and technique of hevrutah study than the substance of the text. Leaders may also choose to introduce chant, imagery, and brief meditation with a view to enriching the study.

4. Openness and acceptance of a diversity of perspectives contributes to creating learning experiences that can be deeply personal and emotionally fulfilling. A key ingredient is a non-judgmental attitude.

5. Keep your study partner’s personal sharings strictly confidential, that makes for safe hevrutah.

Typical Steps of Hevrutah

1. One partner reads the full text aloud to the other.

2. Pause, breathe, don’t react or discuss yet.

3. Now, the other partner reads the first line, or, at Limmud, up to the first highlighted word in the text.

4. See if your partner is triggered with any feelings, thoughts or questions by this line or any of its action, characters or language. For example: “I was surprised at Moses’ tone in speaking to the people, he seemed stressed out.”

5. Reflect back to your partner what they have noticed, in a non-judgmental simply accurate way. “You were surprised by Moses’ tone, he seemed stressed out.”

6. Share your own reaction or reflection. For example: “Well, his sister Miriam just died. He hasn’t had time to mourn. It’s hard to be a leader under those conditions.”

7. Continue your dialogue, and when ready move on to the next sentence, or term. Alternating who reads and then responds allows each of you turns at being first reactor.

Important questions to support your hevruta process:

-Why is this word used and not that word? i.e., stone vs rock.

-What isn’t being said and what is. What dialogue seems missing or possible?

-What triggers you as you read? Something from your life that connects to the text might be valuable to share with your partner. Keep partner personal sharings strictly confidential please, that makes for safe hevrutah.

-What does this story come to teach? If you know the traditional interpretations, you might share them.

-What new insights come to you as you read and discuss the text? Harvest them for sharing in your study circle and back home with friends and family.
 

If you finish your text before others, continue your study with traditional and contemporary commentaries (a list is provided in Meaning & Mitzvah) 

-What connections do you find?

-Why are these secondary texts here?

-How do they change or expand your understanding of the primary text?