Dictionaries

There are two dictionaries necessary for doing the work of this bet midrash:

• a “Jastrow”—Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Bavli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature, by Marcus Jastrow.
• a “Frank”—The Practical Talmud Dictionary, by Yitzhak Frank.

The Jastrow Dictionary is essential for your learning. You can find this dictionary at your local Jewish bookstore, or order online directly from the publisher. Used copies are also often available but, please note that the Jastrow Dictionary you’re looking for has about 1,700 pages. (There is a shorter truncated version which is not useful for Talmud study—Steer clear!)

The Jastrow is unfortunately printed in a small and somewhat fuzzy typeface. Below you will find information about Jastrow accessibility and two ways to access the Jastrow dictionary online.

In addition to Jastrow, you will need the Frank Dictionary. You can order the Frank dictionary from your local Jewish bookstore, or directly from the publisher. Since this dictionary is only just back in print, we will provide excerpts of any required entries. However, we strongly encourage getting a copy ASAP!

Jastrow Accessibility and Online Versions   

Many of our learners and teachers use a Magnabrite magnifying glass to help increase the size and clarity of the printing. We also recommend this magnifier with two flat edges, which can fit in closer to the inner binding of a book. Some folks find the online versions of the dictionary more accessible for various reasons. Below is information about two free online editions:

• Option #1 is the Tyndale Archive Jastrow Dictionary. This is a complete scan of the printed dictionary. You can find your dictionary entry by selecting the first letter of the word you are looking up and then selecting the first word on the page that will contain your entry. You can enlarge the scanned pages of this dictionary by using the interfaces built-in enlargement tools which are available in the page header. Some benefits of using this option include that it feels more like the book—if your chevruta is using a printed dictionary, you will be looking at the exact same thing and can share page numbers, and you will reinforce learning the order of the alef bet.
• Option #2 is Jastrow on Sefaria. With this option you can type the root or word you are looking for into a search box (via the onscreen Hebrew keyboard) and jump directly to an entry. You may need to scroll backward and forward from there because there can be multiple entries for the same term. Sefaria includes a built-in function to adjust the font size which you can access by selecting the “Aא” button on the upper right side of the page. Some benefits of using this option are that the digitized text is clearer than the Tyndale Archive’s scans and Sefaria is compatible with screen reader technology. Some challenges are that it is harder to get on the “same page” as your chevruta (there are no page numbers), and sometimes the search function takes you to unexpected places.

Only you know what you need in order to learn best! We’ve found that having printed materials and a hard copy of the Jastrow dictionary is supportive for many folks, especially as a contrast to our learning online, and we encourage you to try this if it’s accessible to you.

If purchasing dictionaries or a magnifying glass is beyond your means, please be in touch with Nat.

A Computer With…

To participate in shiur most fully, you will need a computer with high-speed internet access capable of supporting video conferencing. Shiur will be hosted on Zoom—we recommend downloading Zoom’s free software (Zoom Client for Meetings) for the smoothest experience. If you are unfamiliar with Zoom, check out Zoom tips!

Other Learning Materials

The other learning materials you will need for this Bet Midrash, including the Hint Sheet, Supplemental Texts, and reference works are available through this portal and will printed copies be mailed to you. Large-print (20-point font) materials are available in print upon request at registration and are available in this portal.

Community Norms

SVARA envisions a future in which liberatory expressions of Judaism equip individuals and communities to realize a just and healed world. As a learning community, we hold ourselves to a set of cultural norms to help shape a bet midrash experience that enables each person to be fully present, supported, and nurtured.

We know that building a culture that is responsive, healing, and connective is not static work. And just as we approach our time in the bet midrash as a space to practice liberatory learning, we know the work of creating a community that is growthful takes time and practice. We hold the wisdom of bell hooks in our commitment to keep striving:

“The classroom, with all its limitations, remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labor for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom.”

Thank you for your partnership in growing this incredible movement, for holding us accountable to our actions, and for your commitment to holding these community norms as they evolve over time.

Accessibility

Throughout history, the Talmud has been accessible to just 1% of Jews. We believe in expanding the Talmud’s teaching to the other 99%, and we commit to ensuring accessibility in the bet midrash for all people who are seeking to learn.

We invite you to share specific access needs with us in all of our registration processes, and we’ll do our best to incorporate your requests as much as possible to ensure that the bet midrash is an environment that supports your learning.

Below, you will find the latest accessibility systems we are using to support our online learning. We know that systems don’t always work, or fail to live up to their greatest dreamiest potential. If something isn’t going right for you in a learning space, please be in touch with your fairies, your facilitator, or James, SVARA’s point person for supporting access needs.

Access Information for Online Shiurim

In Shiur

Learning Materials

Financial Access

Zoom Tips

How to change your name

Hover your mouse over your own video feed and click the ⋯ button in the top right corner. Select ‘rename’ and type your name as you would like it to appear. Add your pronouns if you’d like after your name.

Gallery and speaker view

There are two views available in every zoom meeting and you can toggle between them whenever you want. Speaker view enlarges the video of whoever is speaking at the time and switches between speakers as new people begin speaking. (If you want to stick with one person’s feed, even when new people start speaking, see the next tip.) Gallery view shows up to 25 meeting participants in a grid of video feeds. If more than 25 people are in the session, you can scroll between different subsets of participants.

When in speaker view you can switch to gallery view by clicking the speaker view button in the top right corner of the zoom window. When in gallery view you can switch to speaker view by clicking the gallery view button in the top right corner of the zoom window.

Pin a video

The faculty will sometimes use physical whiteboards to present ideas in shiur. If you would like to stay with their video feeds even when other participants are speaking, you can pin their video by hovering your mouse over their video feed, click the ⋯ button in the top right corner, and select ‘pin video’.

Hide your own video

If you want to stop seeing your own video feed, hover your mouse over your own video feed, click the  ⋯  button in the top right corner, and select ‘Hide Self View’. Note well: Hiding self-view keeps your camera on and other participants will still be able to see you. If you want to turn your video feed off for everyone, turn off your video.

Turn off your video

In the toolbar at the bottom of the screen, click ‘stop video’.

Turning on closed captioning

Closed captioning will be available throughout our shiurim. To turn on captioning, select the CC button from the toolbar at the bottom of the window.

Unfortunately, chat notifications interfere visually with the closed captioning. To avoid this challenge, click the chat button in the toolbar to open the chat feed in a side panel, and thereby shut off the notifications.

Increase the size of the chat and captions

Step 1: Log into zoom and hit your profile icon in the top right corner

Step 2: From the drop down menu that will pop up, select ‘Settings.’

Step 3: Select the “Accessibility” settings at the end of the list

Step 4: Move the slider to adjust the closed captions size. Below the sample closed captions, you can choose how big you’d like your chat to be.

Bonus: While on a zoom call, click the chat box as if you were going to write a message. If on a mac: hold down the “command” key and then hit the “+” key to increase the chat font size or “-” to decrease! If on a PC: hold down the “ctrl” key and then hit the “+” key to increase the chat font size or “-” to decrease.

Controlling the size of a screen share

Facilitators will periodically use ‘screen share’ to share important information with you in writing. Screen share produces a split-screen effect in which you will see the shared content on the left pane and the speaker’s video feed on the right. You can control the size of these two panes by clicking the center of the bar separating the two panes and dragging left or right.

How to Learn SVARA Style

At SVARA, we approach Talmud study as a spiritual practice for developing radically empathic, mature, evolved human beings who will create a more just, peaceful, and healthy world. We believe that radically courageous, compassion-driven change is native to the tradition, should be revived, and that every person can be given the tools to participate in it. The SVARA-method is designed to support the process of Talmud study in the original language. If you can sound out your alef-bet, you can learn Talmud as a spiritual practice!

The SVARA-method is what we use to build a traditionally radical culture of Talmud study in the original language (i.e. without translation), enabling our students to own the text and the tradition. The four steps of the SVARA-method are (1) chevruta, (2) shiur, (3) chazara, and (4) recitation.

1 | Chevruta

What is chevruta?

• A framework for intimate connection with another human being, with the text, and with the tradition (“chevruta” refers to both the partnership and the people in the partnership!)
• A spiritual technology for developing radical empathy and interdependence
• Interactive, engaging, busy, immersive, with both chevrutas feeling totally present to the relationship and the learning
• When done with rigorous and clear expectations of text mastery, chevruta  becomes a profoundly meditative and empowering experience

How do we learn in chevruta?

Start with a check- in. Take turns, and share with your chevruta how you are, what’s on your mind, whatever you need them to know about you right now so that you can become fully present.

Dedicate: In the Jewish tradition, learning is believed to carry within it the power to repair, to heal, and to transform. It is our custom at SVARA, as it has been the custom in many yeshivas in the world for thousands of years, to begin our learning by directing that power to someone or something in need of healing, strength, or encouragement. Or you might dedicate your learning to someone in whose honor or memory you would like to learn, perhaps someone whom you think would be very proud to know that you’re learning in this moment. Hold the person, people, or community you’d like to dedicate your learning to, in your mind and heart, and then say “I’d like to dedicate my learning today to _______.” Feel free to explain to your chevruta or your learning comrades why this dedication is on your mind.

Bless: The blessing for Torah study closes dedications and elevates learning into the realm of mitzvah, the language that the Rabbis used for what mattered most to them. You can find the blessing for Torah study here.

Learn: Now you’re ready to start learning!

• Pick a “driver”: You and your chevruta are going to be working through the text, word by word. It helps to have one of you be the “vocalizer”– the person saying out each word or phrase (making just a rough guess at the proper pronunciation), just to make sure you both know which word you’re both working on at any given moment, and are always both looking up the same word at the same time. You can periodically switch who’s being the “driver.”
• Look up every word! Oftentimes we think we know what a word means based on previous learning or experience. At SVARA, everyone looks up every word to uncover hidden meanings, nuances, suggestive resonances, connections, and etymologies that are present in the words of the text and help us go deeper in our learning.
• Holler out the page number when you find it! Each chevruta has their own set of dictionaries and should be looking up the same word at the same time as their chevruta. When looking up words, whoever finds the entry first should call out which dictionary they found the word in, the page number, left or right column, top or bottom of the column, or direct their chevruta to the entry.
• Keep it collaborative, take your time. Learning is not a race, or a competition! Talmud study—and all learning—should be a collaboration between learners who understand that they’re on the same team. Don’t worry if other learners are ahead of you in the text, behind you, or anywhere else! Wherever you and your chevruta are is just plain perfect.

2 | SHIUR 

What is shiur?

• The group discussion section during which the text is unpacked, word by word
• Careful attention is paid not only to what each word means but how each word means what it means
• Larger ideas and implications of the text are also explored in a freewheeling discussion

How does shiur work?

The teacher will call upon a student to “read.” “Reading” is done in three steps: “Read,” “Inside Translation,” and “Outside Translation.” “Read, Inside, Outside. Read, Inside, Outside” is the mantra that keeps the learning focused on deep ownership of the text rather than a mere cursory, surface-level drive-by of what’s going on in the text.

It is important to take really good notes during shiur (on everything you can, including pronunciation, roots, grammar notes, meanings of words, etc.) so that you can refer to these during your next chevruta session when you are reviewing the text unpacked in shiur during Step 3: Chazara!

Read—in the original Hebrew/Aramaic, in small chunks

If you are called upon to read, you will read out loud a short chunk of text, making your best guess at pronouncing the one, two, three, or maybe four or five words which make up the smallest meaningful idea in each phrase or sentence. Your teacher will help you as you go along.

Inside translation

You will then go back and make your best guess as to the “inside” translation, i.e., the  hyper-literal translation, of each word, in the order in which the words appear, following the syntax of the original. When you’re giving an inside translation, it will sound quite choppy and not flow in a smooth, colloquial translation.

Every single prefix and suffix should be represented in an inside translation (i.e., החובל בחברו would be translated as the one who injures in his friend). Nothing that isn’t represented in the letters of each word should appear in one’s inside translation. For example, rabbinic literature often implies an “if” at the beginning of a case: “if one injures his friend.” But that implied “if” should not appear in the inside translation.

Outside translation

After giving your inside translation of each phrase, go back and give your best guess at the “outside” translation—a colloquial translation that flows smoothly in modern English, and sounds like something you’d actually say, in the way you’d actually say it. Then, if necessary, explain out what the phrase means, adding any additional background information that would be necessary to help an uninitiated imaginary listener understand what’s going on in that phrase.

Every reader gets enthusiastically clapped up before the next reader is called on!

Unpacking

Along the way, ask yourselves: What does the text say? What does the text mean? And what might the Rabbis have been trying to tell us in saying what they said in the way in which they said it? Beyond the surface content of the text, what might the text be conveying on a meta level about how you, as the learner, are being taught to see the tradition and how it works? How does the text affect how you see yourself as a leader and your role vis-à-vis the received tradition and the future of Judaism? How is your process of learning this text helping you gain insight into yourself and the world around you?

3 | CHAZARA

What is chazara?

• The process of reviewing a text, in chevruta, to complete understanding and deep ownership
• A diagnostic process designed to help you understand what you thought you understood but really don’t, and where your gaps in understanding are
• The process of you becoming the text

How does chazara work?

It’s all about chazara! This is where the magic happens. Chazara serves, first and foremost, to help you diagnose where the weak points in your understanding of the text are, and then to deepen your understanding of the text beyond where you even realized it could have been deepened! This is where the text’s molecules and your molecules come together. This is where you try to gain complete clarity of understanding (which, of course, will always be temporary and enhanced the next time you learn the text). Here’s where you come to own the text, and own the tradition! Without chazara, text study can actually reinforce a sense of powerlessness. If you don’t achieve absolute clarity on the meaning of the text and how each word means what it means—which can only happen through chazara—the teacher will remain the only one in true possession of a) the text, b) most of the “smart ideas” about what the text is saying, and c) the tradition itself. 

• Read inside/outside: While looking at the text, the stronger chevruta (let’s call them chevruta a) goes first, reading out loud through the text, phrase by phrase, with proper phrasing and pronunciation, and translating both “inside” and “outside,” talking out any necessary explanatory or background information as if teaching the material to an uninitiated listener. Partner (b) should monitor and check very carefully and correct any mistakes immediately and be listening for any “rote” translations that are not actually deeply understood by chevruta (a). Switch roles: Now chevruta (b) does the same thing while chevruta (a) monitors and corrects. Note: At the end of this step, both (a) and (b) should understand every individual word, inside and outside, and as many details about each word and phrase as their Hebrew level will allow. See p. 6 of SVARA’s Bet Midrash Reference Guide, “What It Means to Own a Text.”
• Talk it out: Chevruta (a) should close their masechet and talk out the text, in English, from memory (without looking at the text at all), in a good, colloquial outside translation, but staying fairly close to the inside translation, moving through the text phrase by phrase, sentence by sentence, to make sure they’re not missing any nuance of the text’s “moves.” The translation should follow the original words of the text closely enough that your chevruta should be able to know, at every point, where you are in the text. Chevruta (b) should be careful to monitor whether they think chevruta (a) really gets it or may not, at every given point. If chevruta (b) suspects there may be a gap or misunderstanding in chevruta (a)’s understanding, they should ask for clarification from chevruta (a). Remember: You are responsible for your chevruta’s learning! And they are responsible for yours. Switch roles. Now chevruta (b) does the same thing, while chevruta (a) monitors.
• Recite from memory: Chevruta (a) then starts the memorization/internalization part of chazara, reciting the text out, in the original Hebrew/Aramaic (without translating), still without looking at the text. You are now producing the text, from within yourself, from your deep understanding of it. This is not a rote recitation. The text will be naturally emerging from inside of you, because you know every move the text makes and you understand how each move leads to the next and can reproduce it! As soon as a mistake is made, even the most minor mistake in pronunciation or forgotten prefix, chevruta (b) should correct you by simply saying correctly the word which was mispronounced or missed, and send you “Back to the top!” to begin reciting again, from the beginning. This “Back to the top!” step is very important in the internalization process. Student (a) is not finished until they can recite the entire section perfectly, and without error. Remember: memorization is primarily a means to an end (deep, integrated understanding), not an end in itself (the ability to rattle off a lot of words). Switch roles. Now chevruta (b) goes through the same process of recitation from memory with (a) monitoring.

4 | Recitation

What is recitation?

• Sharing, out loud, the text you’ve come to own—in the original, in perfect rendition of the original but voiced through you
• The last step of the chazara process
• The first thing that happens in each shiur before the new material is unpacked

How does recitation work?

Recitation is always the last step of the chazara process done in chevruta. But a typical shiur at SVARA always begins with a selection of students being called on, one at a time, to recite the material they mastered during chazara. After each student recites, the room explodes into boisterous applause!

 

Fairy Hours

Fairies are a beautiful part of the SVARA bet midrash. These folks are here to support the teaching and learning within our community and serve as wisdom-givers and text-wranglers.

If you have a question or need some encouragement, grab some one-on-one (or two-on-one) time with a fairy or faculty member from the list below! Let them help you (and your chevruta) get unstuck in a text, talk Talmud, or just chat about whatever is coming up in your learning.