Model View Controller
Another popular topic at this point is a discussion of Model-View-Controller.
There in benefit to be gained from the MVC framework, but careful reading indicates that no one agrees what MVC is. A case in point - According to "Mastering JSF" the backing beans are considered by Struts as part of the View. Other authors write that the backing beans are THE model.
Again, I don't think a discussion of MVC will help capture the flavor of what JSF is. One exception is to note that JSF works very hard to separate the business logic, the view and the logic used to control the application. IMHO it seems to succeed more than any of the other web based technology.