Every Sunday night at the University of Michigan, twelve students sit down with Scott Sandor to learn Gemara.
The chabura exists because students asked for it. They went to Scott and Talya Sandor, JLIC’s directors on campus, looking for a regular time to learn Gemara that would fit around classes, work, and everything else on their calendars. Scott set it up, and the group has met weekly since.
A Gemara to keep
Before the learning started, each student received a Gemara from JLIC with a personalized note inside. They use these Gemaras every week, and they get to keep them.
Most of the group went to day school. Even so, a few of them had never had the chance to learn Gemara until this chabura. Sunday nights are their first real time inside the text.
Who comes
The group includes freshmen and grad students, pre-med majors and business students. Their schedules have little in common. What they share is the decision to give up an evening a week for serious learning, along with a goal of getting better at reading and analyzing a page of Gemara on their own.
Learning Ta’anit
The chabura is learning Masekhet Ta’anit, which deals with communal fasts and prayers for rain. Scott puts skill-building first, so students do the work of reading and parsing the text themselves each week. From there, the group looks at contemporary halakha that comes out of the sugya and the philosophy behind it.
Gemara can feel hard to get into, especially for someone who never had a teacher walk them through it. A small group, a set night, and a teacher who builds the skills step by step make it a lot easier to start.
Why JLIC invests in this
“We strongly believe that thriving Jewish communities are built through Torah study at their foundation,” Talya said.
That belief is why JLIC directors build learning around what students ask for. At Michigan, students asked for Gemara on a night they could keep, and they got it.
If you know a student at Michigan, or one headed there, let them know the chabura meets Sunday nights.
Reach out to any of our Directors to learn more about JLIC and to support our programming.