When Rav Mordechai Eliyahu zt"l was a dayan in the rabbinical court in Be'er Sheva, one day a respectable man came to him who wanted to file a divorce suit against his wife. The rabbi called him for a conversation and asked what led him to file the lawsuit. And the man says that he is blessed with financial abundance, but his wife is very frugal, she buys cheap clothes and cheap products and lives such a simple life. that he feels uncomfortable living with her and wants to get a divorce. This was a bit of an unusual case, because usually divorce claims were filed against the opposite background. Maran Rav said to him, "Come back tomorrow with your wife, at nine o'clock in the morning."
After the hearings in the Beit Din were over, the Rav zt"l went to the market in Be'er Sheva and bought the worst kind of fruits and vegetables in the market – those that are not sold because of their shape and age, and brought them to the Beit Din the next day. Then he called one of the secretaries, and asked her to wear a handkerchief like a married woman and throw the tomatoes at him when the couple arrived. Indeed, at 9:00 A.M., when the couple entered the rabbi' s office, a woman entered the discussion room with the basket in her hands, and asked the rabbi boldly: "What did you buy? " You didn't find any other garbage to buy, you want to bring home all the garbage in the market"?! The woman didn't calm down, until she took the fruit that was in the basket, threw it at the rabbi, and angrily left the rabbi's office. "Don't pay attention," the rabbi asked the stunned couple. "She's a little angry, and rightly so. Say your claims"... The rabbi says as he cleans his suit from the remnants of rotten fruit.
The husband, who wanted to sue for divorce, tried to start lecturing his arguments, and the words simply slipped out of his mouth. " Go now, come another time if you want," the rabbi told them. Needless to say, this couple never repeated the folly of divorce. When the couple left, the rabbi took out a clean suit that was ready the day before. The secretary, who was dressed as a woman, took out her handkerchief and went into the room to ask for forgiveness for having fulfilled her role "with great elegance." "Don't worry," the rabbi told her, "you have been privileged to be a partner in Shalom Bayit, may you merit to build a faithful home in Israel," the rabbi blessed her.
