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)
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