The Softness That Endures

Take a glass pane and strike it with a sharp blow. It will shatter into pieces. Now take a flexible material like steel or rubber and hit it with the exact same blow. It will bend, [music] absorb the impact, and return to its original shape. The rigid glass broke. The flexible one survived. And this is a fundamental law in engineering. A rigid and stiff material stands firm up to a certain point. When the blow is too strong, it has nowhere to move, so it breaks. But a flexible material knows how to bend, absorb [music] the energy, disperse it, and flow with it. It is precisely the ability to yield to the blow, to adapt to it, that saves it. Rigidity is the weak point. Flexibility is the strength. Listen closely. Skyscrapers like Taipei 101 and massive bridges are intentionally built [music] to be flexible. They sway in the wind and during earthquakes, sometimes by several meters. An inexperienced engineer might have built them [music] rigid so they would be strong, but it is precisely that rigidity that would have destroyed them. Flexibility, the ability to move and absorb, is what keeps them standing when everything [music] is shaking. How many of us think that being strong means being rigid, never giving in, never bending, responding to every attack with an attack, to every insult with an insult? [music] We are convinced that gentleness is weakness, that being flexible means [music] breaking, and we hold on until we shatter. But our sages taught us the law of flexibility of the soul. In Tractate Shabbat, it is told that two people made a huge bet on who among them could provoke [music] Hillel the Elder. One of them tried again and again. He came on Friday evening, called to him rudely, asked insulting questions, [music] and each time Hillel answered him calmly and lovingly. "My son, you have asked a great question." The more the man tried to break him, the more Hillel became flexible and absorbed it. In the end, the provocateur admitted, "Because of you, I lost a huge sum of money. And Hillel calmly replied, "It is worth it for Hillel that you should lose your money because of him." And Hillel would not take offense. On this, the sages said, "A person should always be humble like [music] Hillel and not strict like Shammai. Hillel's gentleness absorbed every blow and did not break. It is the rigidity of the strict person that breaks, [music] just like materials. The flexible survives, the rigid shatters. Our strength is the >> [music] >> someone who knows how to bend even a little to absorb an insult without retaliating, to respond gently. He is not the weak one. He is truly strong like Hillel, just like steel that bends and does not break. It is our softness and patience that allow us to survive even [music] the greatest storms without shattering. So, next time we feel like hardening ourselves, hitting back blow for blow, [music] staying rigid, let's pause and remember the glass that shatters. Remember Hillel's [music] humility. Let's not become so hardened that we break because it is precisely flexible [clears throat] softness that keeps us standing.