Oy! Kreplach!

In context of Jacob leaving Beersheba in order to find a wife – the Midrash states: "A person's marriage partner originates from no one else but G‑d," and cites sources in all three section of Tanach. "Sometimes a man goes to his designated mate (as it was with Jacob); sometimes his designated mate comes to him (as it was with Isaac)."

The Midrash then continues:

Rabbi Yehudah bar Simon opened "G‑d sets the solitary into a family."1

A Roman matron asked Rabbi Yosei bar Chalafta: "In how many days did G‑d create His world?"

"In six days," he replied.

"And what has He been doing ever since?" she asked.

"G‑d sits and matches couples," Rabbi Yosei told her.

"Is this G‑d's occupation?" she asked derisively, "I could do that too! I possess a great number of men servants and maid servants and would be able to pair all of them off in one hour!"

"You may think it is easy, but for G‑d, it is as difficult as parting the Red Sea," he said.

After Rabbi Yosei left, the matron formed rows of her men servants and maid servants, a thousand in each row, and said to them, "This man shall marry this woman," pairing them off as she walked down the line for the night.

But when they returned to work the next morning, one had an injured head, one was missing an eye and one had a broken foot.

"What is going on here?" the matron asked.

"I don't want this one," they all said. She saying, "I will not take him"; he saying, "I will not take her."

She sent for Rabbi Yosei and told him, "There is no G‑d like your G‑d. When you explained to me that G‑d is busy making matches, you spoke wisely."

The Talmud echoes this belief by stating that before a person is born G‑d designates his and her mate: "A heavenly voice emerges and calls out 'this woman to this man.'"

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Midrash

Marriage: Destiny or Chance?