Chavruta is a classical form of Jewish study, in which two people grapple with a text together.  The Talmud declares, “Two students learning together sharpen one another”. In our current (eleventh) series, we will be undertaking an in-depth study of the story of the Binding of Isaac (the Akeidah) in advance of our reading of the story at Rosh Hashanah. Each week we will read a few verses from the story (in Hebrew and English) and then look at a number of commentaries (ancient and modern) that will help us to approach the story from different directions.

If you were involved in the previous course and you want to continue, please email us at acp@alyth.org.uk. If you are new to the Alyth Chavruta Project, please join us by filling out the registration form – you can join with a study partner already in mind, or we can find you one!

Why Chavruta?
Chavruta is the perfect study for our complicated times as it can be done flexibly at a convenient time, in-person or online. It is also a great introduction to text study as it can be done in partnership with someone with similar experience and at your own pace.

How will it work?
We will meet on Thursdays at 19:00 – both at Alyth and online. The following week’s text pack will be printed and given to those who attend in person, while digital copies will be sent out to those who attend online on Friday afternoon.

To download the text pack for our third week of the new course, click here (for those who prefer to download the text pack without covers, please click here).

This week’s text pack comes with a content warning: this Talmud contains comments about body type and references to the size of genitalia.

For those who want to follow the JPS translation of the passage on Sefaria, plesae click here. For Rabbi Elliott’s video introducing Sefaria, please click here.

Please click here to read our updated FAQs, including our top tips on Chavruta study.