A devoted couple in the Galilee had lived together for years without a child. Finally the husband came to Rabbi Shimon and said they had agreed to separate, since the marriage had borne no fruit. The rabbi sent them home to mark the parting with a feast, as befitted a bond that was ending in love rather than anger.
At the farewell table the husband said to his wife, "My love for you has not changed. We part only because we were not blessed with a family. As proof of my affection, choose whatever in this house you love most and take it with you."
His wife smiled. "Very well, my dear."
The wine moved freely around the room. Guests laughed and talked and, one by one, fell asleep. The husband, heavy with wine, dropped off last of all. His wife had been waiting for exactly this. She quietly called her trusted handmaids, and together they carried her sleeping husband out of the house and back to her father's home.
When morning came, he woke in a strange bed and rubbed his eyes in astonishment. "Where am I?"
"Be easy, husband," she said. "I only did as you permitted. You told me last night, before our guests, to take from our house whatever I loved best. There was nothing in that house I cared for as I care for you. Where I am, there you shall be. Let nothing but death part us."
They returned together to Rabbi Shimon and reported that they had changed their minds. The rabbi prayed for them to the One who "sets the lonely in families" (Psalms 68:6), and he blessed the wife, and in time she became "a fruitful vine" and bore children and grandchildren.