Chaburot are like book clubs: Each is centered around a specific text (except you don’t need to have read it beforehand), and has a lead who knows the text and helps direct the conversation.

Just like a book club, chaburot work best when everyone participates. Judaism has a long tradition of textual inquiry and interpretation, no matter your religious or educational background. (Rabbi Akiva, one of the most famous teachers in the Gemara, only learned to read at 40!)

If you study a text closely and turn it over and over, discussing it with others, you’ll reach a chiddush, a new gloss or meaning of the text. The goal of Open Beit Midrash is to give people time to spend with each other and with Jewish texts, participating in the age-old practice of reading, debating, and trying to make sense.

Jewish tradition highlights a mode of study where learning is always done in dialogue with another person. Judaism has always been a polyphonic tradition: We record a multiplicity of voices and opinions (Breishit 1 and 2, Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, etc.) regardless of which opinion is in line with the law. Each opinion and view is valued in itself.

Stories of chavrutot — people who learned together — are told throughout the Gemara. Chavrutot are not best friends or people who agreed on every interpretation; they disagree vehemently and regularly. In doing so, they sharpen each other, teach each other, and make each other think.

In Taanit 7a:8-10, the Gemara writes about the many benefits of learning with others:

Rabbi Ḥama, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, said:

What is the meaning of that which is written: “Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17)?

This verse comes to tell you that just as with these iron implements, one sharpens the other when they are rubbed against each other, so too, when Torah scholars study together, they sharpen one another in halakha.

Rabba bar bar Ḥana said: Why are matters of Torah compared to fire, as it is stated: “Is not My word like fire, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 23:29)?

To tell you: Just as fire does not ignite in a lone stick of wood but in a pile of kindling, so too, matters of Torah are not retained and understood properly by a lone scholar who studies by himself, but by a group of Sages.

And this is what Rabbi Yosei bar Ḥanina said: What is the meaning of that which is written:

“A sword is upon the boasters, and they shall become fools” (Jeremiah 50:36)? This verse can be interpreted homiletically: There is a sword upon the enemies of Torah scholars, a euphemism for Torah scholars themselves, who sit alone and study Torah.

And not only that, but those who study by themselves grow foolish from their solitary Torah study, as it is stated: “And they shall become fools.”