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.