Culture Corner: Marvelous Hevruta

By Gabe Seed
JTS / Columbia University

"Hevruta o Mituta" – Friendship/Peer Study or Death?! (Babylonian Talmud Ta’anit 23b)

As a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary, one might think that I am inundated with Jewish studies. Although I am majoring in Talmud and have countless hours of formal Jewish learning in my schedule, some of my best Jewish education comes in the form of hevruta, informal Jewish study with a friend or two. The most wonderful element of hevruta study is that it is almost infinitely flexible, in terms of frequency and length of meeting, as well choice of topic to be studied. This year, I have two hevrutot which have greatly enhanced my Jewish learning, as we have learned so much from each other and the texts we have studied.

Starting during the previous school year, my friend Jonah Rank, a junior at JTS/Columbia, and I have been studying Masekhet (tractate) Sotah in the Babylonian Talmud, which deals with the ritual prescribed when a wife is accused of being disloyal to her husband, along with a number of other topics. In addition to honing our skills in Aramaic and rabbinic text study in general, Jonah and I have also struggled with the philosophical issues raised by the words of the Mishnah and the Gemara. Although the institution of sotah may no longer be practiced today, it is a fascinating part of our Jewish heritage.

At the beginning of this year, I began an additional hevruta with Yossi Hoffman, a junior at NYU, with whom I had studied at Ramah in Nyack this summer. Yossi had suggested that we delve into the world of classical midrash, medieval works which explain and comment on difficulties in biblical texts. Some rabbis and scholars have compared midrashim to the sermons of today and it is fascinating to try and detect the rabbis’ underlying motivation in the messages they find in the text. Yossi and I have been learning midrashim related to the weekly Torah reading, from D’varim Rabbah, as well as selections related to the special portions for the holidays in Pesikta D’rav Kahana, a work compiled from manuscripts by Dr. Bernard Mandelbaum, former Vice Chancellor of our very own JTS. Studying these texts, especially with the insights of a hevruta, has enhanced both my understanding of midrash and the meaning of the biblical texts when they are read.

It doesn’t take any special qualifications or background to have a hevruta like mine and it can happen on any campus around the world. Even here at JTS, an academic center of the Conservative Movement, some of the best learning takes place outside of the classroom, in a planned or impromptu hevruta session!

Gabe Seed is a sophomore at JTS and Columbia, where he majors in Talmud and history, respectively. He spent a year before college on Nativ, studying at the Conservative Yeshiva and Kibbutz En Zurim.  He also has a presence on the web at http://gabriel.seed.googlepages.com, with a blog and the Zemirot Database which he co-founded.

[Posted 10/29/08]