Jewish learning- "Havruta"
If you enter into a yeshiva, a talmudic academy where Jews study the Torah you will find students and teachers, tables and chairs, bookshelves and books. But one thing will strike you as very surprising. The sound. A yeshiva is not a library where individual students read quietly to themselves. Nor is it an auditorium where the teacher lectures and the students listen passively. Rather, students are paired up in groups of two so that they can study the text together out loud. This study pair is known in Hebrew as a havruta (חברותא), which comes from the root meaning “friendship”. The Bible proclaims the virtues of this kind of friendship: “two are better than one.. for if they fall, one will lift up the other” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). The word for “the other” in the original Hebrew is havero (חברו), which literally means “his friend”.
How to be a real friend?
(According to the Bible)
The point is that to be a “friend” according to the Bible is not simply to be nice to someone, offering them companionship, but to lift that person up in times of trouble. In return, you will be lifted up by them when you are in trouble. Toiling together will always yield better results. In an academic setting, the idea is that friends will nurture each other through the challenges of the text, sharpening each other’s understanding, ultimately arriving at a stronger grasp of the meaning of the text. Most importantly, this must be done out loud. Speaking the text is crucial for knowledge retention. Wisdom acquired using the eyes alone is easily forgotten, but wisdom acquired using the mouth, ears and eyes is deeply imprinted on the mind.
Study Biblical Hebrew in fellowship
This connection between fellowship and study is a radical idea that is at the foundation of the Jewish concept of education. We at eTeacher believe that study should not be a solitary monastic endeavor done in private, but rather a communal practice performed in public. We want to invite you to enroll in our Biblical Hebrew course to experience the power of studying in fellowship.
