A man of Sidon came to Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai to arrange a divorce. He had lived many years with his wife and no children had been born to them. In the Jewish world of the time, childlessness after a decade of marriage was grounds for separation. The couple presented themselves before the rabbi together, expecting him to ratify the parting.
Rabbi Shimon refused to proceed at once. "My children," he said to them in the voice the Midrash records, "your divorce must not happen in anger or bitterness. If you part in a storm, people will whisper that something shameful drove you apart. Let your parting look like your beginning. Go home, prepare a feast, invite your friends, and celebrate one last evening together. Come back tomorrow, and I will write the bill."
They did as he said. They cooked, they invited guests, they poured wine. The evening grew warm and the old affection between them surfaced. At length the husband turned to his wife and said, "My dear, we have lived lovingly together all these years. Now that we are parting, choose whatever you most value in this house, and take it with you to your father's home." The rest of the story, drawn from Midrash Shir HaShirim Rabbah, becomes famous in the retelling. She waited until he slept, and then she had him carried, bed and all, back to her father's house. What she valued most was him.
When he woke, the husband asked what was happening. She repeated his own words back to him. He took her home. They returned to Rabbi Shimon, who prayed for them, and within the year a child was born. Rabbi Shimon had refused to grant a divorce he could not undo, in the hope that one shared feast might undo the grief that had driven them to his door. It did.