JUST DO IT!

When studying Torah, we always take one step backward to review our prior lessons, and one step forward to tackle the next lesson. These discussions often bring new questions to light, and our students are often left to work through some struggle as the week ends. Such was the case with this week's discussion. Our Sunday morning Torah block began with the basic question of failure. Why did GOD put the Tree of Knowledge within reach of Adam and Eve, tempting them to break the rules? Our students offered some keen insights into breaking rules, and doing the right thing. We talked about wanting something, working towards something, and ultimately failing to achieve success, or perhaps hitting obstacles along the way.  

Using the Torah as our textbook, our students continued their discussions about being created in GOD's image on Tuesday afternoon. We talked about free will and our ability to make choices based on our knowledge of right and wrong. We introduced the concept of Yetzer Ha-Rah and Yetzer Tov, the inclination to do right, and the inclination to do wrong, and the internal struggles we all have with impulse control.  We certainly had some interesting discussions about how we learn right from wrong, and the internal struggles we face each and every day. 

To bring our discussions full circle, our students debated about taking things that don't belong to them. We looked at different scenarios and discussed what constitutes need, stealing, sharing, borrowing, or just wanting something and taking it. Ultimately, we decided that things are not always as they seem, and sometimes doing the wrong thing may not be as wrong as it seems. Please ask your student to share some of these concepts with you.