Ḥaber

Chaber or Ḥaber (Hebrew: חָבֵר‎) is a Biblical term meaning "associate"; "colleague"; "fellow"; "companion"; "friend" (Ps. 119:63).

The term is ordinarily used in rabbinical lore in its original Biblical sense (Abot ii. 9, 10). A Talmudic proverb says, "Thy chaber has a chaber, and thy chaber's chaber has a chaber; thy words will thus circulate and become public" (Baba Batra 38b;'Arakin 16a).

The Rabbis urgently recommend study in company, asserting that only in this way can knowledge be acquired (Berakot 63b;Nedarim 81a); therefore, if necessary, one should even expend money for the purpose of acquiring a companion (Abot de-Rabbi Natan viii. 3). A prominent teacher of the second century declared that, while he had learned much from his masters, he had learned more from his "chaberim" (Ta'anit 7a). Hence the term came to mean a "companion in study," a "colleague"; and when preceded or followed by the term "talmid" (pupil) it denotes one who is at once the pupil and colleague of a certain teacher, a scholar who from being a pupil has risen to be a colleague or fellow (compare Baba Batra 158b;Yerushalmi Shekalim iii. 47b). Eventually "chaber" assumed the general meaning of "scholar" (Baba Batra 75a), and appears as a title subordinate to Chakam (compare Kiddushin 33b). The title "chaber" was known in comparatively early times (eleventh century), when it probably referred to a member of a court of justice; but in Germany in later centuries it indicated that its possessor had devoted many years to the study of sacred literature.

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