I know of a case in which I know both the husband and the wife – both in their own way are great people – yet the husband refuses to grant his wife a get (Jewish divorce) in other words, through coercion, he wishes to maintain the marriage – the question then is, is this person a bad person? – Jewish law clearly speaks about such a case – you see, in Jewish law, the husband must willingly give a divorce – the Jewish court cannot coerce him to do so – but there is a caveat – the Jewish court can punish him (in the olden days, physically) until he agrees that he wants to give it – somewhat of an oxymoron – if you are punishing him, is he doing it because he wants to or because he doesn’t want the punishment? and here the greatest of all codifies of law, the Rambam explains: a Jew by nature only wishes to do good, however it is his selfish desire (for we all are both selfish and good) that has overtaken his consciousness – when you beat him, it’s not only he desires not to get beaten, it’s he gets humbled and in his humility he reclaims his soul.