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A chavurah or havurah חבורה (Hebrew: "fellowship", plural chavuroth) is a small group of like-minded Jews who assemble for the purposes of facilitating Shabbat and holiday prayer services, sharing communal experiences such as lifecycle events, and Jewish learning. Chavuroth usually provide autonomous alternatives to established Jewish institutions and Jewish denominations. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Hebrew redirects here. ... The Shabbat table is set: two covered challahs, a kiddush cup, two candles, and flowers. ... A Jewish holiday or Jewish Festival is a day or series of days observed by Jews as holy or secular commemorations of important events in Jewish history. ... Many Jewish denominations exist within the religion of Judaism; the Jewish community is divided into a number of religious denominations as well as branches or movements. ...

Most chavurot place an emphasis on egalitarianism in the broad sense (of which gender egalitarianism is one piece), depending on participation by the entire community rather than top-down direction by clergy. Egalitarianism (derived from the French word égal, meaning equal or level) is the moral doctrine that people should be treated as equals, in some respect. ...

Chavurot in 20th century America had their origins in the North American Jewish counter-cultural trends of the late 1960s and early 1970s. During this period, groups of young rabbis, academics, and political activists founded experimental chavurot for prayer and study, in reaction to what they perceived as an over-institutionalized and unspiritual North American Jewish establishment. Initially the main inspiration was the pietistic fellowships of the Pharisees and other ancient Jewish sects.

Also initially, some of these groups, like the Boston-area Havurat Shalom attempted to function as full-fledged rural communes after the model of their secular counterparts. Others formed as communities within the urban or suburban Jewish establishment. Although the leadership and ritual privileges were initially men-only, as in Orthodox Jewish practice, the "second wave" of American feminism soon led to the full integration of women in these communities.

Apart from some tentative articles in Response and other Jewish student magazines, the early havurot attracted little attention in the wider North American Jewish community. Then, in 1973, Michael and Sharon Strassfeld released The Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit. Patterned after the recently-published counter-culture Whole Earth Catalog, the book served both as a basic reference on Judaism and American Jewish life, as well as a playful compendium of Jewish crafts, recipes, meditational practices, and political action ideas, all aimed at disaffected young Jewish adults. The Jewish Catalog became one of the best-selling books in American Jewish history to that date and spawned two sequels. A much more widespread chavurah movement soon emerged, including self-governing chavurot within Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist synagogues. The Whole Earth Catalog was a sizeable catalog published twice a year from 1968 to 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998. ...

Present-day chavurot include the original chavurot that have functioned continuously since the 1970s, as well as a resurgent wave in independent Jewish communities (populated mostly by the younger generation) that have been established post-2000. Both generations of chavurot gather annually at the National Havurah Committee's Summer Institute and at its regional retreats.

Origin of Term

The concept of a Chavurah has ancient roots. The Talmud (Tractate Pesachim) uses the term chavurah to identify the group of people registered for a single Passover sacrifice, and who held a Seder together, in the days of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Passover Seder is perhaps the prototypical group ritual (traditionally) held outside a synagogue involving the sharing of communal experiences, Jewish learning, and prayer. The first page of the Vilna Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Berachot, folio 2a The Talmud (Hebrew: תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history. ... Pasch could also refer to the mathematician, Moritz Pasch, and the surname. ... Korban (קרבן) (plural: Korbanot קרבנות) in Judaism, is commonly called a religious sacrifice or an offering in English, but is known as a Korban in Hebrew because its Hebrew root K [a] R [o] V (קרב) (or K [o] R... Table set for the beginning of the Passover Seder, including Passover Seder Plate (front center), salt water, three shmurah matzot (rear center), and bottles of kosher wine. ... The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Hebrew: בית המקדש, transliterated Bet HaMikdash) was the primary resting place of the Gods presence (shechina) in the physical world according to classical Judaism. ...

Related Entries

• Judaism
• Passover Seder
• Jews in the woods
• Jewish Renewal

Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... Table set for the beginning of the Passover Seder, including Passover Seder Plate (front center), salt water, three shmurah matzot (rear center), and bottles of kosher wine. ... Also referred to as Fruity Jews, or Fruity Jews in the woods, JITW is an informal Shabbaton meeting that began in New England in 1997 and is held about twice each year. ... The term Jewish Renewal refers to a set of practices within Judaism that attempt to reinvigorate Judaism with mystical, Hasidic, musical and meditative practices. ...

Offsite

National Havurah Committee

Havurat Shalom