Speaking Jewish with The Kumzits: Chevralah

Chevra vs. Chabura (and chaver)

Where the heck did Chevralah come from?

We start every Kumzits newsletter with the greeting “Dear Chevralah.”

A friend of The Kumzits —who is Jewish in spirit —recently wrote in asking what chevralah meant. Since The Kumzits is a conversation and not just a publication, it gave us the nudge we needed to launch our lexicon in progress.

Welcome to Speaking Jewish with The Kumzits. Our nascent attempt to define words that can seem undefinable and run the gamut from English, Hebrew, Yiddish, Yinglish, Aramaic, Hungarian and Ladino.

In other words, our collective mama lushen (מאַמע-לשון, mother tongue).

Unless otherwise noted, assume that all ‘ch’ sounds are the slightly sexy sound you make when clearing your throat.

Let's start with the word that kicked off this whole series: chevralah.

Chevralah, meet chevra and chabura

A chevra (חברה) and a chabura (חבורה) are both Hebrew terms referring to groups or associations, but they have very different meanings and contexts

Chevra typically refers to an established organization or society. Interestingly (or strangely) enough, one of the most common uses of chevra in modern conversation is Chevra Kadisha, or holy or sacred society — usually used for a Jewish burial society. But a chevra is so much more than that.

A chevra is the modern Israeli word for company or business. And when you’re in a group of Israelis, you might hear them address their intimate group as chevra, with that irresistible rolling Israeli ‘r’.

When we at The Kumzits use the word chevralah we’re adding on an affectionate diminutive at the end of the word chevra. It’s common in Hebrew to add on the lah as a term of affection or kinship.

In case etymology is your thing, we can do a slightly deeper dive. Chabura (חבורה) - is a word with similar origins ח-ב-ר (ch-v-r) to chevra, which fundamentally means "to connect" or "to join together." Which is probably why it’s the same shoresh — foundation — for the word chaver (חבר) or friend.

So a chevralah is a group of friends with a similar outlook or mission. A chabura is a study group, particularly of Talmud or Torah. And who do you study with? Your Chavrusa (חברותא), an Aramaic word.

This explains why "chabura" often carries connotations of study groups or informal scholarly circles - it entered Jewish usage through the Aramaic-speaking world of the Talmudic academies. The word maintained its Aramaic form even as it was adopted into later Hebrew usage.

So while both share the same Semitic root meaning "connection," chevra remained Hebrew while chabura represents an Aramaic borrowing that became naturalized in Jewish Hebrew vocabulary.

While all of these four words for fellowship, friendship, binding, union or group come from the same root, they’re in different languages.

• Chaver (חבר) = friend, companion (Hebrew)

• Chevra (חברה) = society, company (Hebrew)

• Chabura (חבורה) = study group, fellowship (Aramaic origin)

• Chavrusa (חברותא) = study partnership (Aramaic)

And I won’t complicate things further by letting you know that a chaver can also be a boyfriend, while a yedid is just a friend friend.

Got a Jewish word you've always wondered about? Just like our friend's question about chevralah launched this whole series, we'd love to hear what words you've been curious about. What should we tackle next?