麻豆社

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

You may know this story.聽 A great flood is predicted.聽 There鈥檚 nothing that can be done to prevent the world being wiped out by water in just three days.聽 A prominent Buddhist begs humanity to follow true teachings to find nirvana.聽 A great Christian theologian insists that it is not too late to accept the teachings of Jesus.聽 But the chief rabbi takes a different approach.聽 鈥楳y people鈥�, he said, 鈥榳e have three days to learn to live underwater鈥�.

As with all good stories, it contains a nugget of truth.聽 The Jewish people have had to develop amazing resilience to weather the ups and downs of our long history.聽 Ready to pack our bags if life turned sour 鈥� and it often did 鈥� our ancestors were more likely to play the violin than the piano.聽 Think about it.

When I was a kid, I thought resilience happened when a rubber ball stayed in shape or when I hit my brother and he bounced back.聽 Today, resilience is usually defined as the ability to recover from setbacks, adapt to change and keep motivated when faced with adversity.聽 It鈥檚 become a central measure of how well people get through life, which never goes exactly to plan.聽 Last week I ran a training session for trainee rabbis.聽 I challenged them to identify the most important personal qualities needed by a community or campus rabbi.聽 We came up with good judgement, a genuine love of people, a great sense of humour and resilience.聽 This is not because rabbis bounce around, although some do, but because we, like other faith leaders, deal not just with wonderful experiences, but may have to cope with constantly shifting horizons, personal hostility and disappointment.聽 Leaders who aren鈥檛 resilient struggle to find meaning in their roles and tend to burn out.

Focusing on our connection with God and the positive blessings of life is one way that I and millions of others try to build spiritual resilience by connecting to a higher force.聽 In the words of King David: You 鈥� God 鈥� showed me great and evil problems, but from the depths of the earth You will raise me once again.聽 And I believe everyone, not just those of us with a strong spiritual belief, can find that building resilience works wonders for our well-being, relieves stress and helps to make us calmer and happier.