The Matchmaking Matron and God's Hardest Work Since Creation

Rabbi Jonah of Bozrah opened: "For God is judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalms 75:8). A noble lady asked Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Halafta. She said to him: In how many days did the Holy One, blessed be He, create His world? He said to her: In six days, as it is written, "For in six days the LORD made" (Exodus 31:17). She said to him: And what has He been doing since that hour? He said to her: He pairs couples, the daughter of so-and-so to so-and-so, the wife of so-and-so to so-and-so, the wealth of so-and-so to so-and-so. She said: And is this all? Even I can do this. How many menservants and how many maidservants I have, and in a single moment I can pair them. He said to her: If it is easy in your eyes, before the Holy One, blessed be He, it is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea. Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Halafta took his leave and departed. What did she do? She took a thousand menservants and a thousand maidservants and set them up in rows upon rows, and said: This man shall marry this woman, this woman shall marry this man, and she paired them in a single night. And in the morning they came before her, this one with his head split open, this one with his eye knocked out, this one with his leg broken. This one says: I do not want this woman, and this woman says: I do not want this man. She sent and brought Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Halafta. She said to him: True is your Torah, fitting and praiseworthy. Everything you said, you said well. He said to her: Did I not say so to you, that if it is easy in your eyes, before the Holy One, blessed be He, it is as difficult as the splitting of the Red Sea? What does the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He pairs them against their will and not for their good. This is what is written, "God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those who are bound with chains" (Psalms 68:7). What is the meaning of "with chains" (ba-kosharot)? [Read as be-khi ve-shirot] with weeping and with song: the one who desires it sings a song, and the one who does not desire it weeps. Rabbi Berekhiah said: In this manner Rabbi Yose son of Rabbi Halafta answered her: The Holy One, blessed be He, sits and makes ladders, raising one and lowering another, putting down one and setting up another, "For God is judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another" (Psalms 75:8). Rabbi Jonah of Bozrah and the Rabbis differed. The Rabbis interpret the verse as referring to Aaron: with this expression he was put down, and with this expression he was raised up. With this expression he was put down: "and I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf" (Exodus 32:24). And with this expression he was raised up: "This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons" (Leviticus 6:13). Rabbi Jonah of Bozrah interprets the verse as referring to Israel: with this expression they were put down, and with this expression they were raised up. With this expression they were put down: "For this Moses, the man" (Exodus 32:1). And with this expression they were raised up: "This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered" (Exodus 30:13).