FROM HAVRUTA TO HABURE: FROM COLLABORATIVE ARGUMENTS TO DIALECTICAL-CRITICAL DISCOURSE / מחברותא לחבורה: מבניית טיעונים שיתופית לשיח דיאלקטי-ביקורתי

The case study presented in this article is based on the analysis of a group discussion taking place among yeshiva students in Israel. The group discussion setting - the Habure, takes place at the end of a long process in which the participants learned in dyads during weeks portions of the Talmud regarding the laws of Shabbat (in a Havruta setting). We show how the dyad leading the group discussion uses a variety of rhetorical devices to try to persuade the other participants their conclusions on the issues discussed are accurate. Yet in this case, different from the traditional cooperative mode in which discussions are held in the dyad context, the mode becomes dialectical: the tone of the conversation raises, and firm differing arguments are presented by the other participating dyads. Despite the rather tense debate, we show that the discourse keeps being focused on understanding the issues at hand and not on the possible winning of the perspectives of any participating dyad over the other.