Blog Response Due: Dec. 28th 9am

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה' אֱלהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעולָם. אֲשֶׁר נָתַן לַשּכְוִי בִינָה לְהַבְחִין בֵּין יום וּבֵין לָיְלָה.

THE BEAUTY OF SLEEP

Most people would agree that there's nothing better than a good night's sleep. Stressful day at the office? Long hours doing yard work and housework? All this can be repaired with a nice, long slumber. You awake the next day feeling calm, refreshed and ready for anything - the stresses, aches and pains of the previous day are long gone.

There have been thousands of sleep studies performed over the years, but we still aren't exactly sure why we sleep. The old joke is that the function of sleep is to cure sleepiness. Prior to 1951, scientists thought bedtime was merely shutdown mode for both the body and mind. It wasn't until a graduate student at the University of Chicago hooked his son to a brain wave machine during sleep that we learned about rapid eye movement (REM) -- sleep periods when the brain speeds up its activity. During REM sleep our eyes twitch, our limbs and facial muscles may move and we dream.

Even though we aren't exactly sure why we sleep, we know that we have to -- all mammals sleep. In fact, a lab rat that would normally live for three years will die in about three weeks without sleep. We know that when we get too little sleep we feel lethargic, sluggish and fuzzy-headed. Long-term sleep deprivation has such an impact on the human psyche that it's been used as a form of torture by virtually every military in existence.

Response:

1. IF YOU WERE DESIGNING A HUMAN- WHY DESIGN HIM IN A WAY THAT MAKES HIM COMPLETELY USELESS FOR 1/3RD OF HIS DAY?

2. WHY DO YOU THINK GOD DESIGNED US THIS WAY?

Class Collected Interview Questions

Here is a list of the questions we raised in class! You do not need to ask each of these questions to your interviewee. This exercise was to show you the types of questions you can ask.

1. What connects you to God?
2. How do you block out your surroundings?
3. Where do you get your kavvanah from?
4. Do you think of something specific?
5. What makes you want to wake up and go to shul?
6. Is there someone who you look up to?
7. What makes you daven so hard?
8. What is your favorite tefillah? why?
9. How do you remind yyourself to do everything? wash your hands? do modeh ani?
10. Have you been like this your whole life? Was their a transformation?
11. Do you plan on davening your whole life?
12. Why do you feel so close to God? That you need to daven to him?
13. Do you feel that davening changes anything? does it have an impact?
14. Does it feel like an obligation or a privilege to daven?
15. What is a moment in your life that you felt the most close to Gd?
16. What are you so thankful for?
17. What do you daven for?
18. What’s actually going through your mind?
19. Do you find davening to be too long? how do you handle that?
20. Do you know the meaning of every prayer?
21. Do you ever think that because of you tefillot HaShem willl take care of you? and not thing bad will happen?
22. Does davening change your day?
23. Do you ever pray out of anger?
24. Do you ever feel guilty if you miss tefillah?
25. Have you ever not prayed because you were angry about something? or been annoyed at Gd about something?
26. Do you love being Jewish?
27. How is tefillah different for you now than when you were younger?
28. How is your tefillah different from just a regular tefillah on a regular day vs davening for a sick person?
29. In which parts of tefillah do you feel closer to HaShem?
30. Have you ever gone through a time when you didn’t feel connected? How did you recover?

Yesodot Mid-Year Project

Yesodot Mid-Year Project

Presentations: Friday Dec 4th

• You will have an opportunity to represent your insights into tefillah in a variety of different ways. What you choose is entirely up to you!

• Each assignment will have a written and oral component. You can do your assignment individually or in pairs.

• In each case, your goal is to represent your profound understanding of this person’s approach to Tefillah and what you have learned from him/her.

Interview someone about Tefillah and their experience. It should be someone you’ve seen davening whom you admire. He/she should be at least 5 years older than you. Use what your interviewee has said to complete one of the project options below!

Project Options:

1. Essay: Write a formal essay (2-3 pages) in which you offer an insightful understanding of your interviewee’s approach to tefillah. Analyze what he/she has said and why you agree or disagree.

2. Playlist assignment: Create a playlist. Design an album cover with a unique title and image which represent your interviewee’s internal landscape. Choose one song from the playlist and write an analysis of the lyrics which illustrates how this particular song relates to this person’s thoughts on tefillah.

3. Create Your Own Siddur: Choose a couple of tefillot from Shacharit you or your interviewee find particularly meaningful. Create a commentary, formatted like the artscroll siddur, which explains the meaning of these tefillot. They should not be tefillot we have already covered in class.

4. Wild Card: A super-creative assignment of your own devising that shows your profound understanding of the interviewee’s thoughts on tefillah. Make sure the final “product” can be shared with the class.

Good luck and looking forward to your presentations!

13 Principles of Faith: Reflection

Of Rambam's 13 Principles of faith, which do you think are the MOST important to YOUR life? Are there any you feel you could not live as a Jew without believing in? Why?

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/332555/jewish/Maimonides-13-Principles-of-Faith.htm
Due Monday Nov 16th 9am.

The Importance of שמות in Judaism: Due Monday Nov 2nd

This week we'll be learning about Shemos and the kedusha of the Name of HaShem. How much does your name affect who you are? Do you know of someone who's name is a big part of their identity? Watch the video below for inspiration: WHY is it so frustrating when this man "messes up" the workers names? https://youtu.be/XhBD1553fhk

Quiz on Monday: Pages 3-6!

In Kitzur Shulchan Aruch!

What is your life "mission statement"?

Messilat Yesharim writes, "The foundations of saintliness and the root of perfection in the service of God lies in a man's coming to see clearly and to recognize as a truth the nature of his duty in the world and the end towards which he should direct his vision and his aspiration in all of his labors all the days of his life." 

Whats your vision? What are your aspirations?

Name and Email!

Please fill out this form by Thursday Oct 22nd 9pm so we can effectively communicate this year!
http://goo.gl/forms/2he2LgD59A

מסילת ישרים - What is man's obligation in this world?

What is man's obligation in this world? Read this chapter in מסילת ישרים  Path of the Just to hear the Ramchal's perspective. The first page is background on the author of the sefer. Your assignment is to write a point by point summary of the main points made in the chapter.

Text: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5ppQ8TD6ISkSl8zaEF3N0xTdDg/view?usp=sharing.
Submit your typed summary here: http://goo.gl/forms/qMMWdOuqfD

Due Sunday Night 10/18 12am.

Monday Quiz: Halacha and Hashkafa on Modeh Ani

This is the first of our quizzes which will take place every other Monday. The quiz will be about 15 minutes and cover what we have done in class on Modeh Ani.

Syllabus: Yesodot Period 9 2015-2016!

Click on the link below to view our class Syllabus!

https://docs.google.com/a/kushneracademy.org/document/d/1JZuS9zyVCLt_pDFT-CRKlywkjs6vUfmF3o6FWbS4AC4/edit?usp=sharing