³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

Harvey Belovski, rabbi at Golders Green United Synagogue: 
At this time of year, I spend a fair amount of time interviewing couples to serve as student chaplains on campuses up and down the country. It’s a privilege, but a huge responsibility to make sure we find the right people, who will offer the very best provision to their students. Years ago, I heard a lovely story that has influenced how I do this. It’s about a businessman who needed someone to run his office. Preparing to interview the three candidates who applied for the job, he broke a piece off the corner of his desk to see how they would react. The first candidate pointed to the piece and asked the businessman, ‘do you realise that your desk needs repairing?’ 
The second candidate helpfully recommended a carpenter. But when the final candidate noticed the broken piece, she asked the businessman for some glue and fixed the desk herself. Of course, he hired her. This thought is captured beautifully by the American comedian Milton Berle: If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door. Noticing opportunities to act, and if there are none, making one’s own, is often the key to success. Over the years, I’ve interviewed people who are brimming with great ideas, but can’t offer any evidence that they will ever achieve any of them. 
On one memorable occasion, I asked a candidate how he would actually implement his grand plan, he was quite evasive. And when I pushed him to answer, he replied that he would hire other people – at my expense – to do it for him! I’ve wondered whether there’s a secret ingredient to look for, and I discovered that Shammai, a Jewish teacher who lived over 2000 years ago recommended that we ‘say little and do much’. 
Very often doers just get on with the job without grand speeches. We’ve all come across people who talk a good talk but never actually do anything. Shammai continues by recommending that we should greet everyone with a smile. It seems that Shammai is providing us with an easy way to tell whether someone is a doer. Smiling is contagious and enables us to connect with others. And I believe that when we connect, we are more likely to want to help them in practice – to ask for some glue and fix that desk ourselves.