DEUT1330 Indeed, it would be contrary to the interests of the couple, their children, and society to preserve a union which generates unceasing discord and antisocial attitudes. To quote a talmudic maxim: "No individual can live permanently in the same den with a snake" (Yevamot 112b). Under some circumstances, the dissolution of a marriage by divorce is not only desirable but meritorious (Eruvin 41b). In the absence of compelling reasons, the termination of a marriage by divorce is regarded in Judaism has a great tragedy. "When a divorce ends a first marriage, the altar shed tears" (Gittin 91b). The altar, a symbol of reconciliation between man and God, shed tears when two individuals in conflict cannot reconcile to one another. The Pentateuch seems to be deliberately vague in its description of a legitimate cause for divorce. A man divorces his wife "because he has found an unseemly thing in her" [this verse]. What is the definition of an "unseemly thing"? Is it in her moral conduct or in her general inadequacy as a wife? Rabbinic interpretations differ. However, the vagueness of the text might indicate that the definition of an "unseemly thing" should be left to the social and moral perceptions of each generation.