Torah study as devotion (chavruta)

1. Introduction

Version followed: the classical rabbinic sources on paired study (Babylonian Talmud Ta'anit 7a, Berakhot 63b, Makkot 10a, Bava Metzia 84a, Ta'anit 23a, Kiddushin 30b, Yevamot 62b; Bereishit Rabba 69:2; Mishnah Avot 1:6, 3:3 and 4:14), as gathered and explained by Rav Tzvi Sinensky for Yeshivat Har Etzion's Torat Har Etzion series; for present-day method, Orit Kent's theory of havruta learning (Brandeis University, Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education) and the Pedagogy of Partnership programme she co-founded with Allison Cook (run with the Hadar Institute), plus the chevruta method Alan Morinis describes for the Mussar Institute. [source: Sinensky, Torat Har Etzion; Kent 2010; Brandeis Mandel Center; Mussar Institute]

Chavruta (also havruta, chevruta or chavrusa; Aramaic for "companionship") is the traditional Jewish practice of studying a sacred text, usually Talmud, Mishnah, Bible with commentaries, halakha (Jewish law) or Mussar (ethical-devotional literature), aloud with a partner. Within the tradition, Torah study (talmud Torah) is a commandment and an act of worship in its own right, not only a way to gain information. The Mishnah teaches, in the name of Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon, that when two sit together with words of Torah between them, the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence, as the tradition understands it) rests between them (Avot 3:3, citing Malachi 3:16). [source: dafyomi.co.il Avot 3:3 with commentaries]

The tradition's account of how change happens: learners are "sharpened" against each other as iron sharpens iron (Ta'anit 7a, reading Proverbs 27:17); a partner checks sources and reasoning, raises objections and catches errors; studying alone risks error and self-deception; and the relationship itself, which can begin in conflict, is meant to end in love (Kiddushin 30b). Kent's research describes the same process in educational terms: two learners and the text form a three-way partnership, and meaning arises as partners move between six practices held in three contrasting pairs: listening and articulating, wondering and focusing, supporting and challenging. [source: Sinensky; Kent 2010; Avichai Foundation on Pedagogy of Partnership]

This is a contemplative-devotional practice of a living tradition. The psychotherapist does not teach it or act as a study partner. The therapist's work is (a) understanding and supporting the client's own practice when the client wants it in the room, (b) borrowing its relational skills (careful listening, articulating, holding disagreement with respect) where the client wishes, and (c) recognising when it is entangled with scrupulosity, perfectionism, loneliness, loss or religious distress. [synthesis]

2. Framework

Chavruta is a practice, not a phased therapy. Sources give no session counts for therapy use. Below, the tradition's own structure comes first, then a working frame for the psychotherapist.

A. The practice as taught

Partnership. Two people (sometimes a small group) commit to study together. Avot 1:6 (Yehoshua ben Perachya) tells a person to "acquire" a friend; Rashi and Tiferet Yisrael read the friend as a study partner. [source: Sinensky]
Setting. Traditionally the beit midrash (study hall), where many pairs learn aloud at once; today also synagogues, schools, online and by phone. Morinis describes partners meeting every week or two to learn a Mussar text. [source: Mussar Institute; Brandeis Mandel Center Seventh Grade Beit Midrash]
The triangle. The text is a third participant, not just material; each learner is responsible for the relationships among self, partner and text. [source: Project Zug; Avichai Foundation]
Process. Read the text closely and aloud, a small unit at a time; question, explain, illustrate, support and challenge until the unit is understood; then move on (Morinis's sentence-by-sentence method). [source: Mussar Institute]
Teaching sequence (Pedagogy of Partnership, as the Mandel Center describes it). Preparation (name and explore one havruta skill with a partner, for example what active listening looks, sounds and feels like), enactment (use the skill while learning a new text), reflection (look back on how the pair used the practices). [source: Brandeis Mandel Center, Teaching the Practices and Skills of Havruta]
Readiness. Project Zug suggests a short havruta warm-up from Pedagogy of Partnership (about 20 minutes) before a course. [source: Project Zug]

B. The psychotherapist's frame [synthesis]

Assessment and consent. Learn what chavruta means in the client's life (devotion, identity, community, obligation, conflict) and whether the client wants it addressed in therapy. Move on once the client has said what role, if any, it should have.
Client-led integration. Work with texts, values and relationships the client brings, in the client's own tradition and language. Move on when the client's goals are clear and the client keeps authority over religious meaning.
Targeted work. Address specific problems (scrupulosity, perfectionism, partner conflict, isolation, grief, doubt) with standard evidence-based methods adapted to the client's values; consult or refer to the client's rabbi or teacher with consent.
Review. Check whether the practice is again a source of meaning and connection, as the client defines it.

Format: integrated into ordinary individual sessions; no source sets a number of sessions. [synthesis]

3. Guiding principles

Study as devotion, as the tradition holds it. Treat talmud Torah as the client's act of worship and meaning, not as a hobby or a symptom. Practical meaning: ask what the learning means to them before asking what it does for them. [source: Avot 3:3 via dafyomi.co.il; synthesis]
The text is a third party. Kent's triangle places the text alongside both partners. Practical meaning: when a client brings a text, attend to the client, to you, and to what the text actually says, without making it say what therapy wants. [source: Project Zug; Avichai Foundation]
Sharpening needs respect. The tradition prizes vigorous challenge (Reish Lakish's many objections to Rabbi Yochanan, Bava Metzia 84a) and warns that disrespect is destructive (Rabbi Akiva's students, Yevamot 62b). Practical meaning: challenge gently and only inside a secure alliance. [source: Sinensky]
Not alone. The sources warn against isolated study (Ta'anit 7a; Yerushalmi Nedarim 11:1) and Rava's saying "either companionship or death" (Ta'anit 23a). Practical meaning: loss of a study partner or community can be a serious loss; ask about it. [source: Sinensky; synthesis]
Conflict can turn to love. Kiddushin 30b says partners may start as adversaries but do not leave until they love each other. Practical meaning: help the client stay with a hard partnership, or end it, by their own values. [source: Sinensky]
Pairs of practices in tension. Listening and articulating, wondering and focusing, supporting and challenging work as pairs; meaning arises from moving between them. Practical meaning: notice which pole a client is stuck on. [source: Kent 2010; Avichai Foundation]
Some people learn better alone. Sinensky notes the commentator Iyun Ya'akov allows this, so the Talmud's warning is a call to guard against solitary pitfalls, not an absolute rule. Practical meaning: do not push a client into partner study. [source: Sinensky]
The therapist is not the rabbi, teacher or chavruta. Practical meaning: questions of law, interpretation or obligation go to the client's rabbi or posek; avoid dual relationships (for example, studying with a client). [synthesis; professional ethics (APA Ethics Code)]
Religion does not cause OCD, and observance should not bring misery. The IOCDF cites Proverbs 3:17 and the Steipler (Rabbi Y. Y. Kanievsky) on this. Practical meaning: treat compulsive learning or rechecking as OCD to treat, not as piety to challenge. [source: IOCDF, Jewish Scrupulosity]
Spiritual and religious competence. Know enough about the client's tradition to ask good questions, and be aware of your own religious commitments and how much to disclose. Published competency sets exist (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A describes the practice as its sources teach it, so the therapist can understand and support what the client does. The therapist does not teach it in session; people who want to learn are referred to a rabbi, teacher, beit midrash or study programme. Part B is the psychotherapist's own work.

Part A. The practice as taught

A1. Acquiring a study partner

Purpose (as the tradition states it): Avot 1:6 tells a person to acquire a friend; commentators (Rashi, Tiferet Yisrael) read this as a study partner, and Rabbeinu Yona reads it as serving both learning and wider life. Rambam describes levels of friendship. Avot 4:14 adds that companions establish Torah in a person, and one should not rely on one's own understanding alone. [source: Sinensky]
Steps as taught: choose a partner who will challenge you, check your sources and reasoning, and treat you with respect (Sinensky presents this as implied by the sources, not a stated rule); agree on a text and a regular time; keep both rigour and affection at the centre. [source: Sinensky; Mussar Institute]
Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned you used to have a chavruta. What was that partnership like, and what would a good one look like now?"
Watch for: a client who has no partner and feels this as a religious failing; partners chosen from fear of being judged by better learners; community norms on who may study with whom, which vary (ask, do not assume). [synthesis]

A2. Reading aloud, slowly, a unit at a time

Purpose: close, unhurried engagement with the text rather than reading it through for information. [source: Mussar Institute]
Steps as taught (Morinis, Mussar Institute): one partner reads a sentence aloud and pauses; either partner asks a question, offers a reflection, or gives an illustration that supports or challenges the author's point; stay with that sentence until there seems nothing more to say; then go on to the next. Both partners share the roles. Project Zug adds: read closely, listen attentively, and say your own ideas aloud to test them. [source: Mussar Institute; Project Zug]
Example language (illustrative): "When you read that line aloud with your partner, what happened in you?"
Watch for: rereading or re-reciting driven by fear of not having understood "enough" (see B5); reading aloud as the main sign of whether the practice feels alive or mechanical to the client. [synthesis; IOCDF]

A3. Listening and articulating

Purpose: the first of Kent's three paired practices: taking in the partner's and the text's words, and putting one's own understanding into words so it can be examined. [source: Kent 2010; Brandeis Mandel Center] Detailed definitions are in Kent (2010) [uncertain: not verified beyond the practice names].
Steps as taught (Pedagogy of Partnership sequence): in preparation, the pair discusses what active listening looks, sounds and feels like and may make a shared chart; in enactment, they use it while studying a new text; in reflection, they look back on how they listened and spoke. [source: Brandeis Mandel Center, Teaching the Practices and Skills of Havruta]
Example language (illustrative): "Say back what you heard your chavruta argue before you answer it. How did that change the conversation?"
Watch for: one partner dominating; a client who articulates easily but does not listen, or listens but never voices a view. [synthesis]

A4. Wondering and focusing

Purpose: wondering opens several lines of inquiry; focusing chooses the one that most interests the learners and follows it. Pedagogy of Partnership teaches that meaning comes from moving back and forth between these two mindsets. [source: Avichai Foundation on Pedagogy of Partnership]
Steps as taught: survey the text with open questions; list several directions; pick one; return to wondering when the chosen line is exhausted. [source: Avichai Foundation]
Example language (illustrative): "What questions did the passage raise for you? Which one keeps pulling at you?"
Watch for: endless wondering with no focus (often anxious avoidance of commitment), or premature focusing that shuts down doubt. [synthesis]

A5. Supporting and challenging

Purpose: building up a partner's idea and testing it. The classical model is Reish Lakish, whose many objections sharpened Rabbi Yochanan's understanding, whereas simple supporting proofs did not (Bava Metzia 84a); Bereishit Rabba 69:2 likens a scholar to a knife sharpened only against another blade. [source: Sinensky; Kent 2010]
Steps as taught: offer evidence from the text for a partner's reading; raise objections and alternative readings; argue hard while keeping respect. Yevamot 62b (Rabbi Akiva's students, who failed to respect one another) is the tradition's warning. [source: Sinensky]
Example language (illustrative): "When your partner challenges you, does it feel like sharpening or like an attack?"
Watch for: contempt, rivalry or shame in the pair; a client who cannot tolerate being challenged, or who only challenges. [source: Sinensky; synthesis]

A6. Turning to the text as devotion

Purpose (as the tradition holds it): study as worship and as time in the Divine Presence (Avot 3:3, Rabbi Chanina ben Teradyon). Commentators on that mishnah contrast Torah talk with idle gatherings; one (Matanat Avot) says any two Jews discussing a thought of Mussar or the weekly portion bring the Shekhinah, not only great scholars. [source: dafyomi.co.il Avot 3:3]
Steps as taught: the sources cited describe the devotional frame, not a separate procedure; liturgical and other customs around study are matters for the client's rabbi. [uncertain: not verified]
Example language (illustrative): "For you, is learning more like prayer, more like a conversation, or something else?"
Watch for: devotion that has turned into self-reproach about time not spent learning (Rabbeinu Yonah on Avot 3:3 frames idle talk as time taken from Torah; some clients may hear this as an accusation); ask before assuming either devotion or distress. [source: dafyomi.co.il; synthesis]

Part B. The psychotherapist's work

B1. Exploring what the practice means to the client

Purpose / when: at intake or when learning comes up; for any observant, returning or formerly observant Jewish client. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) ask whether the client studies Torah, with whom, what and how often; (2) ask what it means: devotion, identity, family or community belonging, obligation, intellectual joy, conflict; (3) ask whether they want it to have a place in therapy; (4) record the client's own terms (chavruta, shiur, daf, seder, beit midrash) and use them. The DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, with its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions, offers a structured way to do this [uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Some people's learning is central to who they are; for others it's complicated. Where is it for you right now?"
Watch for / working: the client corrects your understanding freely; you can tell whether learning is a resource, a stressor, or both. [synthesis]

B2. Client-led text integration

Purpose / when: the client wants to bring a passage they are learning into therapy; within spiritually integrated psychotherapy (see Domain VII), with consent. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) invite the client to read the passage and say why it matters now; (2) treat the text as a third voice, as in Kent's triangle: ask what it says before what it means for them; (3) explore the client's reading and feelings; (4) leave interpretation and law to the client and their rabbi or teacher; (5) close by asking what they take back to their own learning. [source: Project Zug and Avichai Foundation for the triangle; synthesis for the clinical use]
Example language (illustrative): "Read it the way you'd read it with your chavruta. What stands out? I'm not here to rule on it, but I'm curious what it stirs."
Watch for: you drifting into teaching or ruling; the client using the text to argue with you rather than to explore; the client's sense that the material became their own. [synthesis]

B3. Borrowing havruta skills for relationships (adaptation)

Purpose / when: conflict, communication or perfectionism work with a client who values chavruta and would like to use its language. Kent suggests her framework can help analyse text-based discussion of other texts, in pairs and larger groups; it has also been discussed in social-emotional learning (Ladon 2016, members-only abstract). Clinical use is a derived application. [source: Kent 2010 abstract; Lookstein Center record; synthesis]
Steps: (1) name the three paired practices in the client's words; (2) identify which pole the client over- or under-uses in a key relationship; (3) rehearse the weaker one in session (for example, saying back a partner's view before responding); (4) review between sessions, mirroring the preparation, enactment and reflection sequence. [source: Brandeis Mandel Center for the sequence; synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "In chavruta you'd never answer before you'd heard the whole argument. What if you tried that with your brother this week?"
Watch for: the frame feeling imposed or trivialising sacred practice; ask permission first. Working: the client reports less escalation and more curiosity. [synthesis]

B4. Partner conflict, loss and isolation

Purpose / when: a strained or broken partnership, the death of a long-time partner or teacher, moving away from a learning community, or exclusion from one. The tradition itself treats companionship in study as close to vital (Ta'anit 23a; Bava Metzia 84a, where Rabbi Yochanan's partner Reish Lakish dies and a substitute partner cannot replace him). [source: Sinensky]
Steps: (1) name the loss as a real relational and religious loss; (2) explore grief, guilt and identity; (3) where wanted, support the client in finding a new partner, shiur or community; (4) for conflict, use B3 and Kiddushin 30b's image of adversaries who become friends as the client's own resource, if they choose. [synthesis; source: Sinensky for the texts]
Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like losing him meant losing both a friend and a way of being with God."
Watch for: complicated grief, withdrawal from all learning, depression; refer to community supports and clergy where wished. [synthesis]

B5. Scrupulosity in Torah study (ERP with rabbinic consultation)

Purpose / when: the IOCDF lists obsessive worry about whether one has understood or remembered one's learning well enough among Jewish scrupulosity presentations, alongside excessive concern with precise articulation and kavanah (intention) in prayer and over-asking rabbis halakhic questions. [source: IOCDF, Jewish Scrupulosity]
Steps: (1) assess using the IOCDF's three markers: comparison with community norms, motivation (relieving anxiety tied to obsessive fears versus religious reasons), and functional impairment; (2) with consent, consult the client's rabbi or posek to separate actual halakhic requirements from OCD rules; (3) build an exposure hierarchy within what halakha permits (for example, moving on after one reading despite doubt, not reviewing to check memory), with response prevention; (4) draw on the tradition's own safeguards the IOCDF lists, such as not guarding against remote possibilities and the principle that the Torah was not given to angels; (5) review gains with the rabbi involved if the client wishes. Huppert, Siev and Kushner (2007) describe adapting ERP for ultra-Orthodox patients so it fits their values. [source: IOCDF; Huppert et al. 2007]
Contraindications and safety: do not design exposures that would breach the client's religious law; obtain informed consent for each exposure; pace to tolerance. [source: IOCDF; synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Your rabbi said one careful reading meets your obligation. This week, the practice is to read once and move on, and notice the doubt without answering it."
Watch for: reassurance-seeking from the therapist or partner as a new compulsion; the Steipler's distinction, cited by the IOCDF, between ordinary effort and persistent fear and misery in observance; progress shows as more joy and less checking. [source: IOCDF]

B6. Referral and collaboration with rabbis and teachers

Purpose / when: questions of law, interpretation, finding a partner or programme, or the client's wish for spiritual guidance. [synthesis]
Steps: (1) ask whom the client trusts (rabbi, rebbetzin, Rosh Yeshiva, Mussar teacher, campus or hospital chaplain); (2) obtain written consent and agree what will be shared; (3) keep roles clear: the rabbi rules on halakha, the therapist treats the clinical problem; (4) for learning itself, refer to the client's synagogue or study hall, or to programmes that teach havruta openly, such as the Mussar Institute or Hadar's Pedagogy of Partnership resources. [source: IOCDF for posek consultation; Mussar Institute; Avichai Foundation; synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Would it help if I spoke with your rabbi, so we're working from the same understanding of what's required?"
Watch for: clients who fear the rabbi learning of therapy; respect a refusal and work within it. [synthesis]

B7. Trauma-sensitive adaptation

Purpose / when: clients for whom study settings, teachers, particular texts or the challenge of a partner carry trauma, including abuse in religious educational settings, shaming by teachers, or religious trauma after leaving observance. No source cited addresses chavruta specifically; this is general trauma-informed practice. [synthesis] Treleaven's (2018) trauma-sensitive mindfulness is a related published adaptation for meditative practice [uncertain: not verified].
Steps: (1) ask before bringing any text into session; (2) let the client choose texts, pace and whether to read aloud; (3) offer grounding and pauses if a passage or memory of a study setting triggers distress; (4) separate the client's relationship with God and text from harms done by people, without telling the client what to believe; (5) if abuse by a teacher or other adult is disclosed, follow your safeguarding and reporting duties. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "We can leave the text aside, or read just a line, or you can tell me about it without reading it. You choose."
Watch for: dissociation, shame, flashbacks to study-hall humiliation; working: the client chooses what to approach. [synthesis]

B8. Monitoring adverse effects

Purpose / when: throughout. Chavruta is discursive study rather than meditative absorption, and the sources cited do not report adverse effects of it as such. Risks seen clinically are mainly relational and obsessive: scrupulosity (B5), perfectionism and shame about learning ability, rivalry, overwork and lost sleep during intensive study periods, and isolation. [synthesis; IOCDF] Research on challenging meditation experiences (Lindahl et al. 2017; Farias et al. 2020) applies only if the client combines study with meditative or Kabbalistic contemplative practice [uncertain: not verified].
Steps: (1) ask periodically how learning affects mood, sleep and relationships; (2) separate religious doubt or a crisis of meaning from depression, OCD or psychosis without pathologising faith struggle; DSM-5-TR has a code for a religious or spiritual problem, Z65.8 [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8]; (3) refer health concerns (for example exhaustion or sleep loss) to the client's doctor. [synthesis]
Example language (illustrative): "Has learning felt different lately, heavier or emptier, or more anxious?"
Watch for: loss of joy, compulsive hours, hopelessness tied to falling short; working: the client describes learning as nourishing again. [source: IOCDF on joy; synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The sources cited address the study relationship and scrupulosity; most clinical guidance below is synthesis and is marked so.

Client feels like a failure as a learner (cannot keep up, compares self with others). Explore the standard they hold and its source; the tradition's own voices offer counterweights the client may already know, such as Matanat Avot's teaching that any two Jews discussing a thought of Mussar bring the Shekhinah, and Iyun Ya'akov's allowance that some learn better alone. Use them only if the client finds them meaningful. Illustrative: "Whose voice says your learning isn't good enough?" [source: dafyomi.co.il; Sinensky; synthesis]
Rigid, combative chavruta (the partner humiliates, or the client does). Name the tradition's own line between sharpening and disrespect (Bava Metzia 84a against Yevamot 62b); help the client decide whether to repair, renegotiate or end the partnership. [source: Sinensky; synthesis]
Stuck: the client intellectualises in session as if in the study hall. Gently move from argument to experience: "We've built a strong case. What do you feel when you hear it?" Wondering without focusing can be avoidance; ask which question matters most. [source: Avichai Foundation for wondering and focusing; synthesis]
Resistance to therapy as a threat to faith. State that you will not try to change beliefs; the IOCDF frames treatment as removing OCD's hold on religious life, not abandoning practice. Offer rabbinic consultation. [source: IOCDF; synthesis]
Non-adherence to ERP homework because it feels sinful. Return to the posek's ruling; if none was obtained, obtain one before continuing; never press an exposure the client believes is forbidden. [source: IOCDF; Huppert et al. 2007; synthesis]
Reassurance-seeking from the therapist, partner or rabbi. Treat repeated questions about having learned "properly" as compulsions; agree a plan with the client (and, with consent, the rabbi) for not answering them. [source: IOCDF on over-consulting; synthesis]
Overwhelm during intensive learning periods (exams, semikhah study, yeshiva or seminary year). Problem-solve sleep, breaks and support; route physical health concerns to the client's doctor; do not set learning targets. [synthesis]
Rupture over the therapist's religious position (the client asks whether you are observant, or senses judgement). Respond openly, disclose only as much as serves the client, and repair. Spiritual and religious competency frameworks (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified] and the APA Ethics Code address self-disclosure and respect for religion. [synthesis]
Requests to study together, or for a ruling. Decline warmly: this is a dual relationship and outside your role; refer to a rabbi, teacher or study programme. [synthesis]
Doubt, loss of faith or leaving observance. Do not push in either direction; explore grief, family and community consequences, and religious trauma if present; support the client's own decision. [synthesis]
Concerns about a teacher or learning institution (abuse, coercion, exclusion). Follow safeguarding and reporting duties; documented misconduct specific to chavruta settings: none found in the sources consulted. [synthesis]
Gender and community norms about who may study with whom. Practices vary by community; ask the client and, if needed, their rabbi, rather than assume. [synthesis]
Physical health claims. No source presents chavruta as a treatment for physical disease, and none should be implied. [synthesis]

Sources

Online sources

Articles and books cited

Kent, O. (2010). A theory of havruta learning. Journal of Jewish Education, 76(3), 215–245. doi:10.1080/15244113.2010.501499
Huppert, J. D., Siev, J., & Kushner, E. S. (2007). When religion and obsessive-compulsive disorder collide: Treating scrupulosity in ultra-orthodox Jews. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 63(10), 925–941. doi:10.1002/jclp.20404
Ladon, J. (2016). Translating as explanation: Havruta, skill development and social emotional learning. Jewish Educational Leadership (Winter 2016).
Morinis, A. Everyday Holiness [uncertain: year and publisher not verified].
Kent, O. & Holzer, E. A Philosophy of Havruta: Understanding and Teaching the Art of Text Study in Pairs [uncertain: not verified].
Also cited [uncertain: not verified]: Lindahl et al. (2017), "The Varieties of Contemplative Experience", PLOS ONE; Farias et al. (2020), systematic review of adverse effects of meditation, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica; Treleaven (2018), Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness; Vieten et al. (2013), spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists; American Psychiatric Association, DSM-5-TR (Cultural Formulation Interview). APA Ethics Code: https://www.apa.org/ethics/code.
ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances

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