Jews are now in the process of finishing the festival of Sukkot.

We have been shaking the lulav, the palm frond.

What is the greatest quality of the lulav?

It bends. It is flexible.

The Talmud asks the question: Why does a sofer, a scribe, use a quill made out of a reed to write a scroll of the Torah?

Because, it says, a person should always be as flexible as a reed — and as unyielding as a cedar.

But, you cannot be so flexible that you forget the core of who you are. When that happens, you break.

Or, your soul breaks.

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