From the Writings of Our Sages

It is the manner of a man to search for a woman, but it is not the manner of a woman to search for a man. Why is this? This is comparable to a person who lost something. Which searches for which? The person searches after what he lost.

(Talmud, Kiddushin 2b)

Caesar said to Rabban Gamliel: "Your G-d is a thief; as it is written, 'And G-d caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man... and He took one of his sides...'"

Said Caesar's daughter, "Allow me to reply." Said she to him: "Summon me a guardsman."

"Why do you require one?" asked her father.

"Thieves came upon us in the night, took a silver flask, and left us a golden flask."

"If only they would come every night."

"And was it not beneficial for Adam that a side was taken from him and a handmaid to serve him was given him in its place?"

"What I mean to ask," said the king, "is why could it not have been taken in his presence?"

Said she: "Bring me a piece of raw meat."

It was brought her; she charred it in the ashes of the hearth, handed it to him, and said: "Eat of this!'

Said he to her: "It is repulsive to me."

Said she to him: "Adam, too, if the woman had been formed in his sight, she would be repulsive to him."

(Talmud, Sanhedrin 39)

A matron asked Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta: "In how many days did G-d create the world?" Said he to her: "In six days." Asked she: "And from then until now, what does He do?"

Said he: "He sits and matches up couples."

Said she: "And this is His artistry? I, too, can do that! How many servants and maids do I have! In a fleeting moment I can pair them."

Said he to her: "For you it may be easy. For G-d it is as difficult as the splitting of the sea." Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta left her and went.

What did she do? She took a thousand slaves and a thousand slave-girls, lined them up in two rows, and announced: "You marry him, and you marry her." On the next morning they came before her -- this one with a wound in his head, that one with a drooping eye, this one's arm dismantled and that one's leg broken. Said she to them: "What happened to you?" The one said, "I don't want him," and the other said, "I don't want her..."

Immediately she sent for Rabbi Yosi ben Chalafta and said to him: "Rabbi, your Torah is true, beautiful and praiseworthy. Everything that you said was well said."

(Midrash Rabbah, Bereishit 68)

A woman was married for many years to her husband, but had no children. Her husband decided to divorce her, so he went to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, of blessed memory, and Rabbi Shimon told him that just as they celebrated with joy their mutual bond when they got married, so should the severance of their mutual bond be celebrated in joy. The husband therefore prepared a great feast, at the height of which he called his wife and asked her in his joy to choose whatever she desired of his possessions to be hers, and said that he would not refuse her anything.

What did she do? She served him so much wine that he got drunk and fell asleep on his bed. She then told her servant to take him on his bed to her father's house.

The following morning, when he awoke and found himself in his wife's home, he asked her why he was brought there? She replied: "Didn't you tell me that I could take whatever I wanted? I desire not gold, nor silver, nor precious gems, nor pearls. All I want is you. You yourself are the sole object of my desire."

When the husband heard this, he became once again enamored of his wife, and took her back as before. And in this merit, the Holy One, blessed be He, granted them children.

(Midrash Rabbah, Shir HaShirim 1)