Chevruta is Aramaic for friendship and is used to refer to learning with a partner. Both the learning and the partner are called chevruta, as in “I have a chevruta every morning”, or “He has been my chevruta for 20 years.”
The Talmud declares, “Two scholars learning together sharpen one another” (Ta’anit 7a). It also advises that scholars who try to learn Torah alone will become stupid.
Whether it is because you can correct each other’s mistakes or that talking out ideas brings greater clarity and creativity, or because it saves one from spacing out and losing concentration so much, Judaism has always valued learning in pairs or groups. Non-Jewish educators have taken an interest in chevruta as a powerful educational tool for empowering students to tackle difficult topics themselves and help each other learn.