Learn at SVARA
Gemirna Kollel
SVARA’s approach to yeshiva learning is anchored by our Gemirna Kollel, a rigorous, multi-year journey made up of independent chevruta learning, online shiurim, and in-person, immersive retreats. By pairing deep immersion in Talmud with the wisdom unique to marginalized people, we cultivate leaders equipped to build a more just, compassionate, and liberatory Jewish tradition. Applications will open in early 2027, but if you’d like to talk more about the program with our faculty right now, you can schedule a discovery call here.
Open Bet Midrash
Torah For the Here and Now is a new season of SVARA learning that invites us to discover the wisdom we need for the lives we’re living right now. Students of all backgrounds are invited to learn with us during our upcoming Fall Zman, which runs from October 19 through December 17.
Taught by Amir Starr Weg and Ari L. Monts/Emet
Mondays, 8:00–10:00 pm ET for the first three weeks, then 8:00 pm-9:30 pm ET
Learn how to learn, and discover what the Talmud is all about.
Queer Talmud for Beginners Mind is a bet midrash (learning space) geared towards beginners. We’ll discover how to learn in chevruta (accountable paired learning) while building the skills to read and translate rabbinic text in the original Hebrew. Whether this is your first time, your first time in a long time, or your first time learning in the SVARA method, we’re excited to learn with you! The text we’ll be exploring comes from Masechet Yoma and offers us an entry point into the invention of pikuach nefesh, or “saving a life,” a foundational concept from our tradition.
This learning space is for new SVARA-niks and new Talmud learners who know the alef-bet (you may have just learned it!)
Structure:
- We’ll meet once a week on Mondays from 8–10pm ET for the first three weeks and from 8-9:30pm ET for the remaining six weeks
- There are nine sessions, and regular attendance is expected
- SVARA will match chevrutas (learning partners) based on your learning style and background (or you can sign up with someone you know you want to learn with)
- Learners are expected to meet for 60-90 minutes of chevruta learning outside of class.
- Learners may opt to receive a package from SVARA that includes the hard copies of our learning materials.
- Two dictionaries are required: Frank & Jastrow
- If you require captioning to access this learning, you can request it in our enrollment form!
Taught by Ari L. Monts/Emet and Natalie Boskin
Tuesdays, 8:00–9:30 pm ET (with an additional 1.5-2 hours of chevruta time each week)
Ask big questions and co-create meaning as we dive into a text that examines the presence of the Divine.
In our Mixed Level Bet Midrash, you’ll strengthen your chevruta skills by meeting regularly outside of our bet midrash to both prep the text of our sugya and return to it again in chazara in order to check your understanding, ask big questions, and internalize each and every word. In this weekly shiur, we’ll engage with recitation, translation, and meaning-making as a group. All of the time you spend with your chevruta during the week allows for closer reading and richer discussion in shiur. We will learn a sugya from Masechet Berachot that examines when the Divine is present.
This learning space is for: returning SVARA-niks who have learned Talmud with us in the past (especially in Queer Talmud for Beginners Mind!); folks who have experience learning Talmud in the original elsewhere; or new SVARA-niks who are ready to jump in!
Structure:
- We’ll meet once a week on Tuesdays from 8–9:30 pm ET
- There are nine sessions and regular attendance is expected
- SVARA will match chevrutas (learning partners) based on your learning style and background (or you can sign up with someone you know you want to learn with).
- Learners are expected to meet in chevruta for 1.5–2 hours each week in addition to shiur
- Shiur will include occasional small-group breakout spaces
- All registered learners will receive a package from SVARA that includes the hard copies of our learning materials.
- Two dictionaries are required: Frank & Jastrow
- If you require captioning to access this learning, you can request it in our enrollment form!
Taught by Rabbi Bronwen Mullin and Kendra Watkins
Mondays, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm ET (with an additional 1.5–2 hours of chevruta time each week)
A multi-genre journey through a few essential (and radical) rabbinic texts.
Midrash, as a genre independent from Talmud, has much to teach us about when, how, and why Talmud became as radical as it is. In Talmud + Midrash, we will study a sugya and its midrashic twisted-sister (i.e.- its parallel). Using the SVARA method, and with a bit of literary and historical criticism, learners will gain a deeper understanding of the queer rabbinic project at large. And speaking of “sister,” the story of Ruth the Moabite will be our textual guide.
Structure:
- We’ll meet once a week on Mondays from 7–8:30 pm ET
- There are nine sessions and regular attendance is expected
- SVARA will match chevrutas (learning partners) based on your learning style and background (or you can sign up with someone you know you want to learn with).
- Learners are expected to meet in chevruta for 1.5–2 hours each week in addition to shiur
- Shir will include occasional small-group breakout spaces
- All registered learners will receive a package from SVARA that includes the hard copies of our learning materials.
- Two dictionaries are required: Frank & Jastrow
- If you require captioning to access this learning, you can request it in our enrollment form!
Prerequisites:
- Have practiced learning in the four steps of the SVARA Method
- Confidently navigate the Jastrow and Frank dictionaries and come to shiur having looked up every word of an assigned text
- Arrive to shiur with a confident working vocalization and inside translation of the majority of the Hebrew they encounter (including: identifying the person, number, gender, and tense of any Hebrew word, recognizing the meaning of all Hebrew binyanim)
- read Rashi script
Taught by Laynie Soloman and Natalie Boskin
Thursdays, 8:00–9:30 pm ET (with an additional 1.5 – 2 hours of chevruta time each week)
Together, we’ll meet the medieval sages who added their insights to the Jewish canon and learn how we can do the same.
This class will offer a guided introduction to the world of Rishonim (“firsts”)—the literature produced by medieval sages who first expanded the Talmud’s web of discourse through their analysis and interpretation. Our first weeks of shiur will be a familiar journey through a sugya in SVARA’s method. After we fully “own” the sugya and integrate it into our bodies and hearts, we’ll see how the Talmud’s words travel through land and history in the interpretations offered by these medieval commentators. As we learn, we’ll explore the ways learning Rishonim can support our own development as creative agents of the tradition and connect us to our own interpretive power.
Our “methods” for studying Rishonim will be a scaffolded collaborative learning mode that incorporates the following structure: an orientation to Rishonim (who they are, and why we might learn them), a guided tour of how and where to find Rishonim to learn, and a guided exploration by cultural region, teaching lineage, and/or genre through key texts produced by these scholars. Learners are required to sign up with a chevruta; we will not be making chevruta matches for this class.
Structure:
- We’ll meet once a week on Mondays from 8–9:30 pm ET
- There are ten sessions and regular attendance is expected
- Learners are expected to meet in chevruta for 1.5–2 hours each week in addition to shiur
- Shiur will include occasional small-group breakout spaces
- All registered learners will receive a package from SVARA that includes the hard copies of our learning materials
- Two dictionaries are required: Frank & Jastrow
- If you require captioning to access this learning, you can request it in our enrollment form!
Prerequisites:
- Have practiced learning in the four steps of the SVARA Method
- Confidently navigate the Jastrow and Frank dictionaries and come to shiur having looked up every word of an assigned text
- Arrive to shiur with a confident working vocalization and inside translation of the majority of the Hebrew they encounter (including: identifying the person, number, gender, and tense of any Hebrew word, recognizing the meaning of all Hebrew binyanim)
- Read Rashi script
- Note: Ahead of the first session, students are expected to have prepared Sanhedrin 17a/b with their chevruta, which we will review in Weeks 1 & 2
- Learners are required to sign up with a chevruta; we will not be making chevruta matches for this class
If a multi-week class isn’t what you’re looking for right now, we invite you to explore our asynchronous Open Bet Midrash resources!
Explore a collection today.
SVARA is home to hundreds of digital resources that showcase the ever-expanding process of shaping tradition. The SVARA Library holds collections of commentary on texts from Pirkei Avot to Masechet Yoma, as well as writings from our faculty about grief, friendship, transition, climate change, and joy.
It’s never been easier to start a sugya.
These independent learning resources are for folks who have participated in SVARA-style learning before and want to cultivate an ongoing Talmud practice.
Spend the year with SVARA during Daf Shenati, a radical journey through a single page of Talmud.
Daf Shenati (literally, a-Page-a-Year) is SVARA’s radical take on Daf Yomi (literally, a-Page-a-Day)—the century-old global project of learning one page of Talmud a day. But when you’re doing Daf Shenati, it’s not just the teacher who really knows the text. It’s every learner. Over the course of the year, you’ll be learning a full daf of Talmud, in the SVARA Method, to a place of deep ownership of the text.
We’re currently offering two distinct ways to join Daf Shenati: through a peer-facilitated Learning Circle or an independent Chevruta Pathway.