Ḥavruta

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. The traditional phrase is to learn b'chavrusa (בְחַבְרוּתָא, "in chavrusa"; i.e., in partnership); the word has come by metonymy to refer to the study partner as an individual, though it would more logically describe the pair.

Unlike a teacher-student relationship, in which the student memorizes and repeats the material back in tests, chavrusa-style learning puts each student in the position of analyzing the text, organizing his thoughts into logical arguments, explaining his reasoning to his partner, hearing out his partner's reasoning, and questioning and sharpening each other's ideas, often arriving at entirely new insights into the meaning of the text.

While chavrusa-style learning is traditionally practiced by men and boys, it has also become popular in women's yeshivas that study Talmudic texts. In the 2000s it was extended to telephone and internet hookups in which partners study Talmud as well as other traditional Jewish texts.

"O chavrusa o misusa" (Either companionship or death)

Chavrusa is an Aramaic word meaning "friendship" or "companionship". The Rabbis of the Mishnah and Gemara use the cognate term chaver (חבר, "friend" or "companion") to refer to the one with whom a person studies Torah. In contemporary usage, chavrusa is defined as a "study partner".

In Orthodox Judaism, a chavrusa always refers to two students learning one on one. When three or more students learn together, they are called a chavurah (Hebrew: חַבוּרָה‎‎, group).Reform Judaism has expanded the idea of chavrusa to include two, three, four or even five individuals studying together. It has also extended the material being studied beyond traditional texts, to modern scholarship and poetry. The Reform and Conservative movements have also altered the idea of chavurah from its Orthodox meaning of groups that meet only for Torah study. In Reform and Conservative terminology, a chavurah is a group of individuals or families which is part study or prayer group, part social club.

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