Curriculum Outline

SVARA’s Pedagogy Chaburah for Rabbis & Educators will support a learning community of teachers and leaders seeking to bring traditionally radical learning to life, wherever they are teaching. Participants will gain the following skills & competencies in the four core areas of gamirna, savirna, pedagogy, and tachlis.

gamirna | confidence & competence in the practice of learning

Participants will:

• deepen their practice of Talmud study in SVARA’s method; 
• increase their exposure to rabbinic literature through a queer and critical lens; 
• and become more empowered independent learners of Talmud and commentaries.

savirna | embodiment of a traditionally radical approach to the Talmud & tradition

Participants will:

• encounter new lenses through which to view the Talmud and tradition  that are sensitive to the radical, bold, and creative nature of the Jewish tradition and the Talmud that models it, 
• recognize the centrality of moral intuition (svara) in the past and future development of the Jewish tradition; 
• see themselves and their students as active “players” in the evolution of the Jewish tradition.

pedagogy | cultivation of a teacher identity that is rooted in the practices and approaches that nurture authenticity, empowerment, and transformation

Participants will:

• be able to visibilize their own learning processes thoughtfully and skillfully to learners through authentic co-learning, 
• embrace the liberatory potential of upending conventional educational power dynamics in the bet midrash, shifting the focal point from teacher to learner,
• facilitate learning from a place of love and humility

tachlis | tools for executing SVARA-method learning communities

Fellows will:

• gain the necessary skills to begin to incorporate various aspects of SVARA’s method into their teaching practice,
• understand & apply SVARA’s COMP framework to their teaching