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

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The Jewish festival cycle has just finished for this year.Ìý It’s been utterly exhausting, but wonderful and inspirational.Ìý We’ve feasted, fasted, laughed, cried, sang and danced over the past few weeks, touching every possible emotion, but now normality has resumed and just the extra pounds remain.

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I’m actually sad it’s over but excited at what’s next on the Jewish horizon.Ìý Starting to read the Bible from the beginning - coming soon, to a synagogue near you: The Book of Genesis.Ìý The trailer includes – creation, Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and getting thrown out of the Garden of Eden, Cain murdering his brother Abel.

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But the line that sticks most in my head reminds us that every human being – without exception – is created in the image of God.Ìý But what is the image of God?Ìý It doesn’t mean that my passport photo resembles God.Ìý Rather, the power to experience spirituality, change the world, see good in others, and experience eternity is shared by us all.Ìý That’s what makes human being special – whoever and wherever we are, we can rise above our limitations and caress the divine.Ìý This force is called the soul.

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Seeing the soul of others is life-changing.Ìý We live in a society obsessed with external beauty and we are encouraged to assess people’s worth by their looks, rather than their character.Ìý But soul-watchers try to see past the superficial and touch our true core. inner beauty which radiates

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Long ago, in Roman times, the daughter of the emperor asked a great rabbi why such wisdom was stored in an ugly container – in other words, she told him he was ugly.Ìý The rabbi, unfazed, asked her why her father stored his wine in simple clay vessels – if the wine is so good, he should keep it in gold bottles.Ìý She went home and the emperor transferred his wine to gold bottles, and when it went bad, he demanded an explanation from the rabbi.Ìý The rabbi pointed out that very often, the finest materials keep best in the simplest containers.

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The message is obvious – real beauty radiates from the inside through our words, our moral integrity, how we smile and, most of all, how we treat others.