Learning practices and development in yeshivas: historical, social, and cultural perspectives

Although the yeshiva is the housekeeper of the Jewish tradition of learning, it has undergone dramatic changes along history. We describe these changes in historical, sociogenetic, and microgenetic analyses, and particularly focus on the chavruta—dyadic learning around Talmudic texts during successive meetings, and the chabure—a gathering of chavruta dyads, who report to each other on the insights they reached in consecutive chavruta sessions on the same theme. The microgenetic analyses of chavruta point at its collaborative-argumentative character and at the desire to find new methods to understand the Talmudic text. Learners account for the authority of sages, but find strategies to express their own voices. Analyses of the chabure suggest strong volition for autonomy, and point at highly dialectical discussions. We conclude that modern yeshivas establish a society of learners in which deep changes emerge with regard to social order and learning methods. In doing so, we question whether and how these practices contribute to the maintenance of “traditional” discourses and or move in a “transformative” direction and reconsider the modern/tradition binary.