The Divorce Plot That Shammai's Disciple Unraveled

Midrash Aggadah Gaster, Exempla of the Rabbis, no. 74

Curated by The Jewish Mythology Team · Published January 16, 2025

A certain man in Jerusalem wanted to divorce his rich wife. The problem was that her marriage contract — her ketubah — stipulated a considerable sum to be paid to her in the event of divorce, and he did not want to pay it. So he devised a plan.

He would accuse her of infidelity. And to make the accusation stick, he would implicate his own best friend as the supposed lover. That way, he reasoned, he could dissolve the marriage on grounds that voided the ketubah, walk away without paying, and be rid of her.

The case came before a disciple of the school of Shammai. And the disciple, examining the testimony carefully — listening for the small contradictions that a rehearsed story always contains, weighing the motive of the husband, the character of the friend, and the behavior of the wife — saw through the fraud.

The scheme collapsed. The marriage, or at least the ketubah, was saved. And the name of the wife is lost, but the lesson isn't.

Gaster's Exempla (no. 74, 1924) preserves this compact story as a monument to one of the core arguments of the rabbis with Rome and with themselves: a court of law is not merely a place where statements are recorded. It is a place where truth must be excavated from the lies that people wrap around their greed. A good judge does not stop at the surface of a deposition.

Themes

Marriage Divine justice Rabbis Women of the Bible Ethics

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