Think your job is hard? Try being a matchmaker.
The ancient rabbis understood just how hard it is to find that special someone and considered matchmaking a divine task. Literally.
In one striking Talmudic vignette (Sotah 2a), Rabbi Judah claims that, 40 days before a baby is born, a heavenly voice announces who that child’s (eventual) partner will be. But another sage, Rabba bar bar Chana, suggests that this is no simple task–even for God: “It is as difficult for God to pair couples as it was to split the Red Sea.”
Rabba understood that there is a genuine miracle involved in finding a good match. And if matchmaking is indeed like sea-splitting, then when a person finds that special someone we should all be ready to pick up a tambourine and dance all night, just like the Israelites did after crossing the sea.
And for the frustrated JDaters among us? It’s nice to know we’re not alone. Even for the Almighty, the search is painstaking and laborious.
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