(6) Yehoshua ben Perachiah and Nittai of Arbel received the transmission [of the oral tradition] from them. Yehoshua ben Perachia said, Make for yourself a teacher (rav), acquire for yourself a companion (chaver); and judge every person/the whole person with a leaning towards their merit
עשו כתות כתות ועסקו בתורה לפי שאין התורה נקנית אלא בחבורה כדר' יוסי ברבי חנינא דאמר ר' יוסי ברבי חנינא מאי דכתיב (ירמיהו נ, לו) חרב (על) הבדים ונואלו חרב על שונאיהם של תלמידי חכמים שיושבים בד בבד ועוסקים בתורה ולא עוד אלא שמטפשים כתיב הכא ונואלו וכתיב התם (במדבר יב, יא) אשר נואלנו ולא עוד אלא שחוטאים שנאמר ואשר חטאנו
Put yourselves into groups (kitot) to occupy yourselves with the Torah, for the Torah can only be acquired in company (Chavurah).
Rachel Adler, The Goals of Chevruta: “The Juxtaposition of Text and Person,”
The chaverim (study partners) do not simply study Bible. . . . The very structure of their relationship and the nature of its boundaries present a Jewish model for the relation between self and other. In this relationship, people experience each other as whole, rather than as fragmented, beings…Self and other are not sharply separate here. To be chaverim is to be neither fused nor counterposed, but to be juxtaposed. The root CH-B-R means to join together at the boundaries. The curtains of the tabernacle, for instance, are chevrot isha elachotah, “joined one to another” Some boundaries are barricades—chain link fences guarded by [watch dogs]. Others are not primarily barricades but loci of interaction. A cell membrane, for example, is part of the living substance of the cell. It is the perimeter at which the cell conducts its interchanges with other cells—the contacts, the flowings in and out, which maintain its life within its environment. The boundary between self and other [in the study partner relationship] resembles this living, permeable boundary…
מאי דכתיב (משלי כז, יז) ברזל בברזל יחד לומר לך מה ברזל זה אחד מחדד את חבירו אף שני תלמידי חכמים מחדדין זה את זה בהלכה
Why does the verse teach Iron sharpens iron, as a person sharpens the countenance of his fellow (Proverbs 27:17)? To say to you: “just as this iron [weapon] sharpens the other, so two students of the Wise sharpen one another in the Law”
Aish Kodesh: the Sermons of the Piezeczner Rebbe (Kalonymous Kalman Shapiro 1889-1943) – 7th Day of Passover, 1941
And God gave to Moses, after He ceased to speak with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of witness – tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God: When Moses went up to the heavens, he began to recite the Torah after his Maker. After [the Torah] was fully memorized, [God] said to him, come now let us speak together, you and I. Thus we have the words: after He ceased to speak with him. (Midrash Rabbah on parashat Ki Tissa (Ex 41:5)
We learn that God was only in the role of “instructor” only when God was teaching Moses material that Moses did not already know. But regarding material that Moses already knew, God did not “instruct” Moses at all – rather, according to the opinion of the Midrash, God learned together with Moses, and not as an “instructor”. Thus, you must perforce acknowledge that God actually learns Torah with us.
רַבִּי חנניא בֶּן תְּרַדְיוֹן אוֹמֵר, שְׁנַיִם שֶׁיּוֹשְׁבִין וְאֵין בֵּינֵיהֶן דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, הֲרֵי זֶה מוֹשַׁב לֵצִים...אֲבָל שְׁנַיִם שֶׁיּוֹשְׁבִין וְיֵשׁ בֵּינֵיהֶם דִּבְרֵי תוֹרָה, שְׁכִינָה שְׁרוּיָה בֵינֵיהֶם.
(2) Rabbi Chananya ben Teradyon says: Two who are sitting together and there are no words of Torah [spoken] between them, this is a session of scorners...But two who are sitting together and there are words of Torah [spoken] between them, the Divine Presence rests with them.
Elie Holzer, What Connects “Good” Teaching, Text Study and Hevruta Learning?
A Conceptual Argument
When I speak about text study in hevruta, I refer to a situation in which the
learner is involved in a slow, meticulous open investigation and deciphering
of the text, helping his study partner, weighing alternative interpretations,
arguing with his study partner about possible interpretations and “arguing
with” the content of the text.
For centuries, this activity has served not only as a method of acquiring
knowledge, but also as a devotional activity believed to have a transformative
impact on its practitioners in terms of religious practice, beliefs and values
learners were to take away from the content of these texts.