* In November 2005, a man sued a store in Louisville, Kentucky, for a prank that glued him to a toilet seat.

* A high school student used Elmer's® glue to build a bridge made from pasta that supported 2,350 pounds.

*Some doctors use special super glue instead of stitches to close wounds.

A Common Bond

If you want to stick two things together, there are lots of adhesives you could use, and each one works differently. White glues, like Elmer's, work by a process called solvent evaporation. The water in the glue evaporates, leaving behind polyvinylacetate latex (a non-toxic substance) to bond two things together. White glues usually dry in 20 to 30 minutes but can take 24 hours to be very strong.

A single drop of super glue, on the other hand, instantaneously forms a permanent bond. Whereas white glues work when the water they contain evaporates, super glue begins to bond when it is introduced to water. Because just about everything has at least some water on it (even things that look dry have microscopic drops of water on them), super glue works on practically everything. Here's how: When super glue's main ingredient, cyanoacrylate, meets water, it sets off a chemical reaction. This begins a process called anionic polymerization in which cyanoacrylate molecules link up with each other and then those chains whip around until the glue hardens and the molecules can no longer move. The glue gets so thick, hard, and strong that even a one-square-inch bond can lift more than a ton. 

Let’s Stick Together

There are tons of different kinds of glue—white glues, super glues, glues used by doctors to close wounds, glues to make hair stick together (also known as hair spray), underwater glues…the list goes on and on. Similarly, there are lots of different kinds of Jews, each with his or her unique purpose in this world. “Some are knowledgeable in Bible, others in Mishnah, others in Aggadah. Still others perform many mitzvot, and others give much tzedakah, and so on” (Bemidbar Rabbah 3:1). If you look at us individually, we’re a diverse group of different races from different countries. But, if you look at what unites us—Torah, Israel, our culture, and our values—you’ll find that we have plenty in common. It’s important that we put aside our differences and take a lesson from glue: Even though there are so many diverse types of glue, they’re all really great at sticking together.