The woman turned to the rabbi: “I am a gynecologist, I cannot have children. Be merciful, divorce us.” – Come back in a year…
A long time ago, a husband and wife lived on the banks of the Kinneret lake. And they had everything you could want. 10 years passed imperceptibly and their love only grew stronger. But they had a problem that they had no children. “Who needs all this wealth if the Lord has not blessed us with children?” the husband and wife thought. One day the husband said: “We love each other, we have been living together for 10 years, but we still don’t have children. Maybe we should split up? And with a new husband, God will send you many children.” – “No, it’s my fault,” objected the wife, “You must marry another woman so that you can have a son or daughter.” And they decided, if Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai would approve it they will get a divorce.
Rabbi Shimon approved the decision and gave one piece of advice: “Just like you celebrated your wedding, celebrate your divorce.”
They agreed, understanding nothing, but trusting the Rav. And so the husband and wife made a feast, the woman poured wine cup after cup for her husband. And then her husband said to her: “My dear ex-wife! You are returning to your father’s house. I want you to take from my house what is dearest to you. If you want, take all the property.” He said and fell asleep.
The wife ordered the servants to take her husband to her father’s house. At night he woke up andnoticed everything around has changed. “Where am I?” – he asked. “In my father’s house,” the woman replied. “What am I doing here?” “Yesterday you said that I can take with me from your house what is dearest to me. So I fulfilled your wish.”
At dawn, the couple again went to Rabbi Shimon. He began to pray: “The ruler of the worls! Send children to this couple!” Tears welled up from his eyes.
The husband and wife returned home, loving each other more than before. A year later, the first child was born in the family.
I have known this story for a long time. And I always thought that a child was given only because of the prayers of the great rabbi. But why did Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai needed all this “spectacle”? Couldn’t he have prayed right away? True, my rabbi, Moshe Elyashiv, once said that not only the blessing of the righteous helps, but also the merit of the person himself.
I remember my own marriage experience. Virtually all divorced men have complained that their former spouses have ceased to comply or gone crazy. But this woman is deeply saddened. She has to celebrate her divorce. She has the opportunity to deprive her husband of all property. But there is nothing more precious to her than her ex-husband.
Such love and such behavior is worth a lot. And perhaps, on the scales of the Almighty, it outweighs the prayer of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai ?
And now a story from the life of my younger brother Ariel when he was the Chief Rabbi of Georgia. Once a couple approached him asking for a divorce. Both of them cried, but said that they had no children and therefore they wanted to get a divorce. “How many years have you been together?” my brother asked. “Nine” – “According to halach, ten years are supposed.”
The woman turned to the rabbi: “I am a gynecologist, I cannot have children. I can no longer see him suffer. Be merciful and divorce us.” “Come back in a year.”
They were traditional Georgian Jews and my brother was the only rabbi at that time. “You don’t believe in medicine?” the woman asked at the end. – “I believe in the Torah, it says: 10 years. So, so be it.”
A year later, a weeping man came to visit my brother and called him to be a sandak at the circumcision of his son.
If someone else had told me this, I would be amazed at the imagination of the narrator. This is very difficult to come up with.
What do these two stories have in common? That the two couples who had lived together for so many years had no personal grudges that contributed to the divorce. But only the desire to see the happiness of the former wife and husband and the desire to live according to Jewish law!
Source: Ничего личного – Breslev
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