Review Questions on the Chovos HaLevavos - #2 Gate of Examination
prepared by Rabbi Yosef Sebag
www.dafyomireview.com/384
Introduction
1) What are the three types of blindness affecting human beings with regard to benefits they receive from G-d? (Pas Lechem)
2) How does absorption in worldly matters and its lusts blind them?
3) How does coming into this world as babies affect their appreciation of their benefits?
4) what do we learn from the freed prisoner?
5) What do people need to realize about mishaps and misfortunes?
6) Why are people resentful when G-d's judgment is visited upon them?
7) What do we learn from the institution of blind men?
8) Why are the words of the wise like nails?
Chapter 1
1) What is the examination?
2) How does a force compelled by nature act differently that a force with free will?
3) Why does G-d alone have free will? (Pas Lechem)
Chapter 2
1) How is the examination a duty from reason?
2) Give a verse from scripture which demonstrates that the examination is a duty.
3) Give a source from Tradition which demonstrates that the examination is a duty.
Chapter 3
1) What does one learn from the examination?
2) Why is death necessary for the welfare of the world?
3) What factors determine the degree to which a man will cling to the service of the Creator?
4) What will the religious person select for himself, of the material things?
5) What was the outcome of the two brothers who inherited a plot of land after a few years?
6) Explain the three expression a day of rest, idleness and amusement (Pas Lechem).
7) What is every person's plot of land?
Chapter 4
1) What is the first cornerstone of wisdom (universe) and what general lesson does one learn from it?
2) What is the second cornerstone of wisdom (human species) and what general lesson does one learn from it?
3) With what has G-d distinguished human beings over animals?
4) What rebuke did G-d mean to Job when He told him "who provides for the raven his prey?"
5) What is meant by "Solomon spoke of trees"? (Tov Halevanon)
6) What is the purpose of arts and sciences?
7) What do we learn from the torah?
Chapter 5
1) Which class of divine wisdom is nearest to us?
2) Why is man the "closest cause"? (Pas Lechem)
3) What will happen to man when he realizes the abundance of G-d's loving kindness and goodness toward him?
4) What four stages of development of the human being did the author mention?
5) How is the mother's belly like a fortress?
6) What wisdom do we see from the mother's milk?
7) Why are the parents more sensitive to the child's needs than their own?
8) What would have happened to the child if he had been born with a mature intellect?
9) Why does the infant become sick with various illnesses?
10) What would a person be like without memory?
11) What benefit is there to forgetting?
12) Describe some benefits of shame.
13) Why did G-d implant into man shame of other human beings but not of G-d?
14) What example of benefit from being endowed with understanding does the author bring?
15) What is the purpose of man? (Pas Lechem)
16) What would a man be without speech?
17) What benefits are listed for the ability to write?
18) Why are hands and fingers called a "completing benefit"? (Pas Lechem)
19) What comparison does the author draw to the architecture of the ancients?
20) What is the benefit of darkness?
21) Why is the sky blue?
22) Which movements are of your own free will?
23) How can one obtain the favor of G-d?
24) What do we often see from the outcome of hard experiences?
25) What is the great benefit to man and the strongest proof of G-d's existence?
26) What is remarkable about our financial situation among the non-Jews?
27) How does a King's reign endure?
28) Why is gold and silver sparce?
29) Which things are more readily available and why?
Chapter 6
1) What factors are detrimental to the examination?
2) Is the wisdom manifested according to G-d's full power?
3) What mistake did the lad in prison do in praising the king?