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Our Practice of Havruta

Brent Coffin

The phrase “Christian Havruta” must sound like an oxymoron to our Jewish colleagues, if not some form of glib appropriation. Havruta is an ancient Jewish practice where two partners interpret the meaning of a biblical text in a dialogue with one another. The root meaning of the Aramaic word “havruta” is friend. Simply stated, havruta is the Jewish practice of befriending—befriending the other, oneself and the text in a process of attentive dialogue (or “trialogue”). So what are Protestant clergy and lay leaders from the Boston area doing with havruta?

The format…is a self-regulated discipline, and we stick closely to it so that the process allows our dialogue to deepen over the two hours. We begin by checking in with one another at a personal level. We then have a few minutes of silence followed by prayer to be mindful that our conversation unfolds in the presence of God. 

Next the leader frames the day’s biblical text—a chapter or less—in its broader narrative context, and concludes by posing several generative questions. The purpose of these questions is not to evoke answers, but to invite us to pay close attention to the “Third Party” in our conversation. After the framing, we take turns reading the text aloud in order to experience the power of its words as they are spoken and heard. 

Now we break into pairs and explore the text for twenty or so minutes. As the Third Party in the conversation is engaged from several angles of havruta vision, three-way conversations open up. Partners hear the text and one another articulating observations and insights—familiar and unfamiliar, assuring and disturbing, explicable and elusive. It’s like popcorn popping without a lid, unpackaged and messy, like life itself. Sifting through these havruta dialogues, each pair attempts to identify and report back to the group what it found most striking and would like to explore more deeply. 

Typically at this point, the table is overflowing with possibilities, and the leader needs to discern how best to focus the group’s discussion. Perhaps the focus is a living question, one that emerged from the current context of the check-in and took shape in light of the text-based dialogues. After a period of discussion, we return to silence and interior listening. What have we heard that we need to savor and to take away? We close with prayer, and we part company until the next time we meet.

We, clergy and lay leaders, are engulfed by a sea of continuing education opportunities, mostly off site from our congregations. Havruta is not intended to be another opportunity for skill development or organizational strategizing. It’s an intrinsic practice, something we do for its own sake, like friendship. We befriend the text and one another in a living dialogue of faith. And, as with a good friendship, in the process we find ourselves refreshed and enlivened in ways that defy explanation.

Havruta Format

While havruta can take many different forms, our weekly two-hour sessions follow this format:

1. Personal check-in (20 min.)

2. Silence and prayer (5 min.)

3. Framing text (10 min.)

4. Reading text aloud (10 min.)

5. Havruta dialogues (20 min.)

6. Reporting back (15 min.)

7. Group discussion (20 min.)

8. Silent reflection (5 min.)

9. Take-aways (10 min.)

10. Closing prayer (5 min.)

https://alban.org/archive/our-practice-of-havruta/

첨부 : Our Practice of Havruta_Excerpt for Event.pdf