Mo Farah and beating those summer holiday blues!

From Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski, rabbi of Golders Green Synagogue and CEO of University Jewish Chaplaincy:

I’ve just returned from a residential training seminar with my university chaplains. The university year is starting and we are gearing up to greet our students after the long summer break.

Campus life can be complex – many students are away from home for the first time. Intense studies and a great social life might be accompanied by anxiety, vulnerability and the emotional turmoil of exploring adulthood without supervision. All chaplains support students, encourage them to enjoy a healthy balance between work and play and where necessary, refer those who need a little more help. Jewish chaplains also provide home hospitality and, with regret, also help students on some campuses respond to anti-Jewish hostility.

We also equip chaplains to develop their own resilience to ensure that they remain healthy and happy. We play together as well as train, with an outing to a trampoline park, an evening with a comedian and an inspirational Sabbath with singing, dancing and excellent whisky.

 A great university chaplain is rather like a student. We call this the ‘hooligan gene’. It’s an ancient Jewish idea that we can only relate to others when we’ve been to ‘their place’ – geographically and metaphorically, but this means that as much as I love them, chaplains can often be challenging to employ!

A few months ago, I had the privilege of meeting a member of the royal family. He was well briefed. ‘I understand you employ rabbis,’ he said, laughing. ‘That sounds awful – a bit like herding cats!’ I was tickled by his directness, and replied, ‘More like nailing jelly to the wall.’ It’s a thought that would have amused the great Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor – a godly man with a mischievous twinkle in his eye and a much-valued contributor to Pause for Thought – who sadly passed away a few days ago.

Rabbis are difficult to manage, but it’s tremendous fun, filled with surprises, laughter and learning opportunities for all of us. In fact, the early Jewish sage Rabbi Chanina said: “I have learned much from my teachers, more from my colleagues, but from my students more than from all of them”. 

I've gained some really transformational insights from people I've trained. And from the ones with the hooligan gene - the jelly I can't nail to the wall - the best ideas of all.