Anyone know a reference for the methods of chavrusa study?
Chavrusa, also spelled chavruta or havruta (Aramaic: חַבְרוּתָא, lit. "friendship" or "companionship"), is a traditional rabbinic approach to Talmudic study in which a pair of students analyze, discuss, and debate a shared text. It is a primary learning method in yeshivas and kollels, where students often engage regular study partners of similar knowledge and ability, and is also practiced by men and boys outside the yeshiva setting, in work, home and vacation settings.
I started wondering about this because The Course in Buddhist Reasoning & Debate was released today. I began wondering about similar resources in other traditions.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ. Smith said:
Chavrusa, also spelled chavruta or havruta (Aramaic: חַבְרוּתָא, lit. "friendship" or "companionship"), is a traditional rabbinic approach to Talmudic study in which a pair of students analyze, discuss, and debate a shared text. It is a primary learning method in yeshivas and kollels, where students often engage regular study partners of similar knowledge and ability, and is also practiced by men and boys outside the yeshiva setting, in work, home and vacation settings.
I found this post whilst googling for various combinations of "Christian chavrusa", "bible chavrusa" and "torah chavrusa", demonstrating that all searches lead back to Logos in the end. I have been wondering (I guess, partly prompted by use of Logos, and the way in which it's possible to view immense numbers of commentaries simultaneously) whether this is something that can be used to study Torah, rather than Talmud? I figured that if it could be used for Torah study, then it could be used for studying the bible too. Wikipedia seems to imply that using it for Torah study doesn't work in the same way...
I also wonder whether it would be acceptable for a Christian to appropriate what is essentially a Jewish learning method? Would this have been the type of study in which Jesus might have engaged or did it come about only after the birth of Rabbinic Judaism? Would it still be appropriation if used to study different texts? Has anybody got any examples of how it might work for bible study? eg. would one begin with the bible text (in its original language, where known) and then have several commentaries open, and discuss the differences between the commentators?
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MJ. Smith said:
Chavrusa, also spelled chavruta or havruta (Aramaic: חַבְרוּתָא, lit. "friendship" or "companionship"), is a traditional rabbinic approach to Talmudic study in which a pair of students analyze, discuss, and debate a shared text. It is a primary learning method in yeshivas and kollels, where students often engage regular study partners of similar knowledge and ability, and is also practiced by men and boys outside the yeshiva setting, in work, home and vacation settings.
I never knew what it was called, but it features in Chaim Potok's novel The Chosen (which was turned into a movie).
I don't know of a reference for the method. It seems to have the nature of being something that is passed down orally.
A search for chavrusa, chavruta, havruta in my Logos library turned up a few things. This is from Swimming in the Sea of Talmud:
This is from Deeper into the Word: Reflections on 100 Words from the New Testament by Keri Wyatt Kent (formerly on Vyrso but it seems to have been pulled):
The "Spangler and Tverberg" she refers to (footnote 1) is:
Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg, Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 33.
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It's been a year since the original post. I think there are common elements between the practices of Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and Christians in the use of friendly, formalized debates/disputations as a method of learning and verifying the truth. I also have come to the conclusion that dialogical logic is probably the best model for illustrating their commonality. I also think that the lack of the mental rigour such formalized debates teach is one reason for some of the theological splintering of Christianity. But I have a couple of projects to complete before I can seriously pursue this.
On Chavrusa itself from recentish dissertations
Collaborative acts of literacy in a traditional Jewish community
Susan Tedmon, University of Pennsylvania
Abstract
Chavrusa learning, a traditional form of study in the Jewish community, involves two partners (chavrusas), who read a religious text together and discuss its meaning. The term "read" is meant here to connote a generative process in which meaning is constructed by learners who rely not only on textual cues but also on their background knowledge, purposes for reading, setting, discourse, and personal relationship to construct the meaning. This study explores chavrusa learning in order to increase educators' understanding of collaborative learning so that techniques of collaborative learning might be implemented more successfully in classrooms. Within an interpretive framework, several fields of research are brought to bear on the process of chavrusa learning, and multiple perspectives are used to examine the data in order to highlight certain aspects of it. For example, a single instance of chavrusa learning is analyzed through a sociocognitive perspective of reading, a literary perspective of reading, a cultural perspective of reading, and a sociolinguistic perspective of discourse. In addition, the study discusses the implications of the process of chavrusa learning for other reading and discourse events.
Two Thousand Years of Interactive Readers: The Jewish Tradition of Text Study and Commentary.
Pace, Ann JaffeThe Jewish tradition of text study and commentary may convey important messages to educators because of its probable inherent interest and for possible recommendations for pedagogical practice that might be suggested by it. Beyond seeking guidance in religious and everyday affairs, the last 2000 years of Torah study reveals a passionate commitment to uncovering, elucidating, and elaborating on the meaning of the written text; and the interactive response which this commitment fostered itself produced later text and commentary. In its broadest sense, "Torah" refers to the whole of the Hebrew Bible and to later texts and commentaries on it. Torah study essentially involves reading the text and responding to it in a social context, usually students with a master teacher. The process was, and is, dynamic and continuous, as well as both timeless and time-bound. Pedagogical implications of the tradition of Torah study include: (1) the value of collaboration where goals are explicit and mutual; (2) a balanced approach between personal response and a text accepted as authoritative; (3) acceptance of multiple points of view, as long as they can be supported by arguments or demonstration; (4) ongoing and intergenerational modeling of appropriate approaches to text; and (5) a continuous development of "text on text," by which commentaries and interpretations of texts become texts to be studied. (Two figures of schematic representations of Torah pages and the first page of the Tractate Berakhot are included.) (RS)Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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MJ. Smith said:
It's been a year since the original post.
Sorry. Rayner resurrected this thread and I didn't notice that you'd asked your question so long ago, or I probably wouldn't have bothered trying to chime in.
EDIT: Yeah, yeah, after posting this I realized how similar this sounds to "That woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit..." Sorry, Rayner. Didn't mean to put the blame on you... [:)]
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I'm glad you chimed in - it may spark ideas for sources from others. My Jewish cousin is visiting next month from New York which will give me a rare chance to quiz her in person.
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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Rosie Perera said:MJ. Smith said:It's been a year since the original post.
Sorry. Rayner resurrected this thread and I didn't notice that you'd asked your question so long ago, or I probably wouldn't have bothered trying to chime in.
EDIT: Yeah, yeah, after posting this I realized how similar this sounds to "That woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit..." Sorry, Rayner. Didn't mean to put the blame on you...
I didn't think that resurrecting an old thread would be an issue, especially since it had received no responses
I'm glad you responded as I don't think I have either of the resources you quoted from, and I'm really excited by this method of learning.
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Try googling "triads" or "micro-groups" as a spiritual formation framework that moves from a mentor-tutor aspect to one of peer learning while staying small enough to avoid the dynamics of the traditional small group where it becomes possible for a person to remain silent for long periods of time.
Making Disciples! Logos Ecosystem = LogosMax on Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Win11), Android app on tablet, FSB on iPhone & iPad mini, Proclaim (Proclaim Remote on Fire Tablet).
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Rosie Perera said:
A search for chavrusa, chavruta, havruta in my Logos library turned up a few things.
Forward to Cross and Covenant: Interpreting the Atonement for Twenty-First Century Mission by Larry Shelton
Keep Smiling [:)]
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Rayner said:
I didn't think that resurrecting an old thread would be an issue, especially since it had received no responses
I'm glad you responded as I don't think I have either of the resources you quoted from, and I'm really excited by this method of learning.
No problem at all and I'm glad you did given the response. I just meant that it was no longer a topic that was at the top of my brain-stack so I was less likely to be able to come up with a cogent response quickly. Or to put it more nerdily, the aspect of the question that I'm currently reading is very modern ... the application of game theory to logic (formal and informal) to build a build of debate which I will then go back and see if it applies to traditional Bible study debate practice. I'm starting to sound a bit like Denise.[8-|]
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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David Thomas said:
Try googling "triads" or "micro-groups" as a spiritual formation framework that moves from a mentor-tutor aspect to one of peer learning while staying small enough to avoid the dynamics of the traditional small group where it becomes possible for a person to remain silent for long periods of time.
I'll follow up on this - it sounds a bit like what Catholics traditional call "spiritual friendship".
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
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