Havurot

Definition

A havurah is a small group of Jews, affiliated or not affiliated with a specific synagogue, who gather, usually on a monthly basis, to read, discuss, and talk about Jewish topics. For some groups it can be the gathering together of like-minded Jews to participate in secular activities. Each group is self-directed and places an [Page 1039]emphasis on gender egalitarianism. This forum allows Jews to be more autonomous than they normally would be in attending services conducted by clergy. The purposes are manifold, often promoting the development of friendships and commitment to Jewish issues, somewhat akin to an extended family. Members celebrate the holidays together, life cycle events, sometimes study the Torah, and sometimes discuss how Judaism is relevant to their lives.

Influences on the Creation of Havurot

Although the first havurah was created in Whittier in 1960, the flowering of the movement was in the late 1960s and owes its origins to several factors: pietistic fellowships of the Pharisees, the development of Reconstructionist Judaism, countercultural trends in the late l960s and early 1970s, and the publication of The First Jewish Catalog: A Do-It-Yourself Kit that influences Jewish Renewal and Humanistic Judaism. Pietistic fellowships of the Pharisees (loosely dating from 140 to 37 b.c.e.) were in some historians’ views a school of thought (sometimes a social activist group) whose beliefs were nondogmatic in relation to Jewish texts. Their emphasis was more on the common man than the priestly class and they wanted to look at how the Torah applies to contemporary Jewish life. Because some Jews in the middle of the 20th century felt that Judaism was not spiritual enough for them and focused too much on the synagogue and the clergy, they harkened back to the pietistic Pharisees who supposedly promoted an emotionalism and a self-direction in their religious involvement.

Mordecai Kaplan from the 1920s to the 1940s developed the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism, which focused on Judaism as a civilization that is constantly evolving because of new developments in science, philosophy, and history. It is incumbent on Jews to be a part of this evolutionary process. Halaka (Jewish law) is not binding but should be upheld whenever it is appropriate. Havurot found these ideas appealing: Judaism can be a cultural experience; belief in a supernatural God is not essential to learning Jewishly; it is not necessary to live a life following restrictive commandments.

Another inspiration for the development of havurot was the unrest occurring in the 1960s and 1970s in which many established mores were evaluated and found to be unacceptable for modern life. Questioning of much of the structure of authority in schools, in the military, in race relations, and in family life resulted in cataclysmic changes, and these changes affected Judaism as well. One particular response was Jewish Renewal, an effort to redefine the modern practice of Judaism by including more mystical and meditative practices than traditional Judaism. This reinvigoration included not only specific Jewish practices but multicultural spiritual practices as well. It incorporated some of the tenets of feminism, the emotionality of Hasidism and the self-directed energy of the emerging havurot movement. These “friendship fellowships” were formed for prayer and study with the goal of making 20th-century Judaism more spiritually meaningful to its participants.

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