If That’s Not Love What Is?

If That’s Not Love What Is?

(From Song of Songs Rabbah 1:31)

[In Babylon] it was taught: If a man has taken a wife and lived with her for ten years but she has not borne a child, he is nonetheless obligated [to “be fruitful and multiply,”] and therefore to marry another woman.

R. Idi said: The story is told of a woman from Sidon who lived with her husband for ten years and did not have children. They came before R. Shimon ben Yohai and asked to be divorced from one another.

He said to them: “Look here, as you married each other with food and drink [in celebration], so too, may you separate with food and drink.”

They went on their way, and made a holiday for themselves. They made a great feast, and she got him drunk.

In this state, in what he deemed a gesture of benevolence, 

he said,“My beloved, if you see anything that you want in my house, take it, and go to your father’s.”

What did she do? After he fell asleep, she called to her servants, saying, “Carry him, in his bed, to my father’s house.”

At midnight he awoke when the effects of the wine had worn off, and said to her, “My beloved, where am I?”

She said to him: “In my father’s house.”

He said to her: “What am I doing in your father’s house?”

She said to him: “Is that not what you said to me last evening, ‘anything you desire in my house, take it and go to your father’s house’? אין חפץ טוב לי בעולם יותר ממך

There is nothing I desire more in the world than you!”

They returned to R. Shimon ben Yohai.

He prayed over them, and they had children.

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R’ Zalman tz’l teaches that a good maisa – a good story – is one where the heart surprises the mind.

Please feel free to use these stories in your teaching and in your holy conversations. ​​I welcome your gentle comments.

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