Sanhedrin 22B

נעוריך״. אמר לו: כגון מאן? אמר לו: כגון אמך.

your youth” (Proverbs 5:18). Rav Yitzḥak, his son, said to him: Such as whom? Rav Yehuda said to him: Such as your mother.

איני? והא מקרי ליה רב יהודה לרב יצחק בריה: ״ומוצא אני מר ממות את האשה אשר היא מצודים וחרמים״. ואמר לו: כגון מאן? ואמר לו: כגון אמך. מיתקף תקיפא, עיבורי מעברא במלה.

The Talmud wonders: Is that so? But didn’t Rav Yehuda once read to Rav Yitzḥak, his son, from the verse: “And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets” (Ecclesiastes 7:26)? And Rav Yitzḥak said to him: Such as whom? And Rav Yehuda said to him: Such as your mother. The Talmud responds: This is not a contradiction. Granted, she is difficult and angry, but afterward she is conciliatory, so she is both more bitter than death and a source of calmness and joy for him, at different times.

אמר רב שמואל בר אוניא משמיה דרב: אשה גולם היא, ואינה כורתת ברית אלא למי שעשאה כלי, שנאמר: ״כי בעליך עשיך ה׳ צבאות שמו״.

Rav Shmuel bar Unya says in the name of Rav: A woman is raw material, like a vessel that has not been completed, and makes a covenant, becoming truly connected, only to the one who made her a vessel through her first act of sex, as it is stated: “For your Maker is your husband, YHWH of hosts is His name” (Isaiah 54:5).

תנא: אין איש מת אלא לאשתו, ואין אשה מתה אלא לבעלה. אין איש מת אלא לאשתו, שנאמר: ״וימת אלימלך איש נעמי״. ואין אשה מתה אלא לבעלה, שנאמר: ״ואני בבאי מפדן מתה עלי רחל״.

It is taught in a baraita: A man dies only to his wife, i.e., it is primarily she who suffers the pain and sadness resulting from his death, and a woman dies only to her husband. A man dies only to his wife, as it is stated: “And Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died” (Ruth 1:3), and a woman dies only to her husband, as it is stated in Jacob’s parting words to Joseph: “And as for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died on me” (Genesis 48:7).