ANSWER KEY for EMUNAH & TEFILLAH
LESSON #1 LOOKING FOR THE TRUTH 1 Answers will vary. Student may write: a. It is clear that this world was created by a Creator. It could not have come into existence randomly, by itself. b. Similar to the way Avraham Avinu looked at the world and saw there were great wondrous things happening, we should recognize this as well. This proves there must be a God. c. The belief in the Creator is in my spiritual DNA and was passed down from my parents and my parents would not lie to me. 2 Emunah means God is intimately involved in my life, and although it is sometimes difficult to comprehend or see, everything He does is for my benefit. 3 Answers will vary. Student may write: a. The human body in its complexity. b. Looking at nature, such as the Grand Canyon c. A personal experience where it was so clear that the hand of God was moving and guiding all the pieces into place. 4 Answers will vary. Student may write any of the ideas that we spoke about in this lesson. LESSON #2 THE POWER OF THE MITZVOT 1 Answers will vary. Student may write: a. When you are commanded to act, you are immediately confronted by resistance - your ego steps in and says Don t tell me what to do! Therefore, in order to fulfill a command, you must overcome this inner resistance. b. When you perform a mitzvah you form a connection, or partnership, with the One who commands it. He desires a certain result and commands it; you express it in the world. He is the beginning of the process, you are its completion. 2
2 When you perform a mitzvah you form a connection, or partnership, with the One who commands it. LESSON #3 WHAT ARE WE HERE FOR? LESSON #4 THE GREATEST PLEASURE THERE IS 2 God created the world for us. He made us and placed us here to get infinite pleasure. We get that pleasure by connecting with the Infinite and building a relationship with Him. 3 The answers are personal and will vary. LESSON #5 THE ILLUSION 1 There are three possible answers: a. The relationship between our guf and our neshama. b. Our whole standing in relationship to others. c. This World appears to be the final station, but it is not, the neshama goes to Olam Habah. 2 The answers are personal and will vary. 3 Answers will vary. Student may write: a. This World is the place where the guf remains and the neshama goes to the World to Come. b. It is like a womb and the world outside the womb. 3
LESSON #6 THE CHALLENGE LESSON #7 CHOOSING THE GOOD 1 If God gave us all the answers, we would not earn the pleasure that God gives us. We have to work for and earn our relationship with God. 2 Nehama d kisufa is a reward that a person did not have to struggle for and forever, in his mind, it will be fake and he will feel like a phony and it will not bring authentic happiness. 3 Answers will vary. 4 You can t force a relationship. If the ultimate goal is to have a relationship with God and it was was not really earned, it would be artificial. LESSON #8 YETZER HATOV & YETZER HARA 1 The yetzer hara gives us the chance to have free will. Without it we would not have any choice and it would be automatic and instinctive to do good. It also makes us work hard to acquire ultimate pleasure and helps us earn it. 2 Answers will vary. Student may write: a. Too much homework b. Makes me too distracted by my phone c. Makes me busy with my friends d. Makes me busy with sports 3 A person thinks a certain item will bring him happiness, when he gets the item he thinks the next item will bring him happiness. 4 Advertisements breed dissatisfaction, spreading discontent and even altering the way we think. Happiness comes from concentrating on what one has, but looking at ads and other people s possessions causes one to focus on what he does not have, destroying any vestige of contentment he may have been able to develop. 4
5 Procrastinate wasting time so you can get some studying done. Or choosing to procrastinate eating that chocolate bar for ten minutes. LESSON #9 THE EMUNAH CHECKLIST LESSON #10 THE GIFT OF DIFFICULTY 2 The answers are personal and will vary. 3 The answers are personal and will vary. LESSON #11 WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN? 1 A person will not feel any ill will, when he regards his suffering as a Divine act of God and as having been brought upon him by his sins and by recognizing that his attacker does not have the ability to inflict any pain or suffering on him that he was not destined to get in some way or another. 2 The secret to avoiding revenge is to remember that no human being can cause me a drop of suffering that I am not already meant to incur. 3 One must strengthen his belief in God and remember that everything that occurred is from Above and that man s involvement, or lack thereof, cannot alter what God deems proper. LESSON #12 WHY DAVEN IF GOD KNOWS? 1 When a person prays, even just one short prayer, he is saying, It is not me, I can t do this myself, God I need your help. I am limited, You are not. I am placing this in Your hands. That small prayer has changed who he is. He has judged himself as someone who now has a relationship with his Creator. 2 God wants to hear our tefillos. If we are not connecting to Him with our tefillos then it is possible that He will bring upon us something that will force us to pray. Therefore it is better to pray that the things God has given us should remain as they are. 5
3 Prayer is a means of connecting to God who wants to give to us because He loves us and when we love someone we want to allow them to have a relationship with us. LESSON #13 PROPHECIES REVEALED 1 They leave us feeling secure that God is real and everything about Him and His Torah is true. 2 The Torah predicted that the Jewish people would be eternal because God decreed that it would be so. 3 God decreed that the Land of Israel is for the Jewish peoples. He also decreed that as long as the Jews are there it will be fertile, when they leave it will become desolate. LESSON #14 TALKING TO GOD IN YOUR OWN WORDS 1 We fulfill this mitzvah by serving God with our hearts. with tefillah, by taking what is in the deepest recesses of our hearts and talking to God about them. 2 When a person prayed he spoke directly to God in his own words. 3 The power of prophecy began to decrease, and the leaders of the time saw that soon God would no longer communicate directly with human beings. The Anshei Knesses Hagedolah set up all of our brachos and tefillos and implanted in them many lofty secrets and intentions that do powerful things in the Heavens. All we need to do is say the words. 4 Formal tefillah is so much more difficult, because you are reading a prepared script. However a personal prayer is spontaneous. It some ways it is so much easier to connect in that way. 5 The answers are personal and will vary. 6