Ketubah
Encyclopedia
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
prenuptial agreement
Prenuptial agreement
A prenuptial agreement, antenuptial agreement, or premarital agreement, commonly abbreviated to prenup or prenupt, is a contract entered into prior to marriage, civil union or any other agreement prior to the main agreement by the people intending to marry or contract with each other...
. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride.
History
The rabbis in ancient times insisted on the marriage couple entering into the ketubah as a protection for the wife. It acted as a replacement of the biblical mohar - the price paid by the groom to the bride, or her parents, for the marriage (i.e., the bride priceBride price
Bride price, also known as bride wealth, is an amount of money or property or wealth paid by the groom or his family to the parents of a woman upon the marriage of their daughter to the groom...
). The ketubah became a mechanism whereby the amount due to the wife (the bride-price) came to be paid in the event of the cessation of marriage, either by the death of the husband or divorce
Get (divorce document)
A is a divorce document, which according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce. The essential text of the is quite short: "You are hereby permitted to all men," i.e., the wife is no longer a married woman, and the laws of adultery no longer apply...
. It may be noted that the biblical mohar created a major social problem: many young prospective husbands could not raise the mohar at the time when they would normally be expected to marry. So, to enable these young men to marry, the rabbis, in effect, delayed the time that the amount would be payable, when they would be more likely to have the sum. The mechanism adopted was to provide for the mohar to be a part of the ketubah. It may also be noted that both the mohar and the ketubah amounts served the same purpose: the protection for the wife should her support (either by death or divorce) cease. The only difference between the two systems was the timing of the payment. A modern secular equivalent would be the entitlement to maintenance
Alimony
Alimony is a U.S. term denoting a legal obligation to provide financial support to one's spouse from the other spouse after marital separation or from the ex-spouse upon divorce...
in the event of divorce. Another function performed by the ketubah amount was to provide a disincentive for the husband contemplating divorcing
Get (divorce document)
A is a divorce document, which according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce. The essential text of the is quite short: "You are hereby permitted to all men," i.e., the wife is no longer a married woman, and the laws of adultery no longer apply...
his wife: he would need to have the amount to be able to pay to the wife.
Content
The content of the ketubah is in essence a one-way contract that formalizes the various requirements by HalakhaHalakha
Halakha — also transliterated Halocho , or Halacha — is the collective body of Jewish law, including biblical law and later talmudic and rabbinic law, as well as customs and traditions.Judaism classically draws no distinction in its laws between religious and ostensibly non-religious life; Jewish...
(Jewish law) of a Jewish husband vis à vis his wife. The Jewish husband takes upon himself in the ketubah the obligation that he will provide to his wife three major things: clothing, food and conjugal relations, and also that he will pay her a pre-specified amount of cash in the case of a divorce. Thus the content of the ketubah essentially dictates security and protection for the women, and her rights in the marriage. (Conservative Jews
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
often include an additional paragraph, called the Lieberman clause
Lieberman clause
The Lieberman clause is a clause included in a ketubah, a Jewish wedding document, created by and named after Talmudic scholar and Jewish Theological Seminary of America professor Saul Lieberman, that stipulates that divorce will be adjudicated by a modern Bet Din in order to prevent the problem...
, which stipulates that divorce will be adjudicated by a modern rabbinical court (a beth din
Beth din
A beth din, bet din, beit din or beis din is a rabbinical court of Judaism. In ancient times, it was the building block of the legal system in the Biblical Land of Israel...
) in order to prevent the creation of a chained wife
Agunah
Agunah ; literally 'anchored or chained') is a halachic term for a Jewish woman who is "chained" to her marriage. The classic case of this, is a man who has left on a journey, and has not returned, or has gone into battle and is MIA...
). In Orthodox circles, prenuptial agreements are becoming more common as well.
Bat-Kohain variation
The Mishna and Talmud Bavli record that the "Beth-Din of Kohanim" would oversee that the Ketubah of a Bat-Kohain would contract the amount of four hundred Zuz (an increase from the standard amount of two hundred Zuz) in the event the Bat-Kohain would be given a GetGet
Get or GET may refer to:*Get , the offspring of an animal*Get , legal issues around the Jewish divorce procedure*Get , the Jewish divorce procedure...
(bill of divorce) -the increase was written as the base amount due the Bat-Kohain and not penned as a bonus.
The Talmud Yerushalmi opines that the Bat-Kohain who marries a non-Kohain receives that standard two hundred Zuz amount, as a penalty for not marrying within the greater family of Kohanim.
Based on the research of A. Epstien, in his work "Toldot HaKetubah B'Yisrael", the recording of Four hundred Zuz in the Ketubah of the Bat-Kohain was well in effect during the Amora
Amora
Amoraim , were renowned Jewish scholars who "said" or "told over" the teachings of the Oral law, from about 200 to 500 CE in Babylonia and the Land of Israel. Their legal discussions and debates were eventually codified in the Gemara...
period, but from thence onward, no mentioning of the increased amount is found in Rabbinic sources.
Design and language
The ketubah is a significant popular form of Jewish ceremonial artJewish ceremonial art
Jewish ceremonial art, also known as Judaica refers to an array of objects used by Jews for ritual purposes. Because enhancing a mitzvah by performing it with an especially beautiful object is considered a praiseworthy way of honoring God's commandments, Judaism has a long tradition of...
. Ketubot have been made in a wide range of designs, usually following the tastes and styles of the era and region in which they are made. Many couples follow the Jewish tradition of hiddur mitzvah which calls for ceremonial objects such as the ketubah to be made as beautiful as possible.
Traditional ketubot are not written in the Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, but in Aramaic
Aramaic language
Aramaic is a group of languages belonging to the Afroasiatic language phylum. The name of the language is based on the name of Aram, an ancient region in central Syria. Within this family, Aramaic belongs to the Semitic family, and more specifically, is a part of the Northwest Semitic subfamily,...
, the lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of Jews at the time ketubot became standardized. Nowadays many ketubot also have translations into English or other vernacular languages. Many Conservative Jews and other non-Orthodox Jews use ketubot written in Hebrew rather than in Aramaic.. Others may use Aramaic ketubot but also have an additional official version in Hebrew.
In recent years kettubot have become available in a variety of formats as well as the traditional Aramaic text used by the Orthodox community. Available texts include Conservative text, using the Lieberman Clause, Reform, Egalitarian and Interfaith texts. Some congregations have texts available for same sex couples too.
Role in wedding ceremony
In a traditional Jewish wedding ceremonyJewish wedding
A Jewish wedding is a wedding ceremony that follows Jewish law and traditions.While wedding ceremonies vary, common features of a Jewish wedding include a ketuba signed by two witnesses, a wedding canopy , a ring owned by the groom that is given to the bride under the canopy, and the breaking of a...
, the ketubah is signed by two witnesses and traditionally read out loud under the chuppah
Chuppah
A chuppah , also huppah, chupah, or chuppa, is a canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony. It consists of a cloth or sheet, sometimes a tallit, stretched or supported over four poles, or sometimes manually held up by attendants to the ceremony. A chuppah symbolizes the...
. Close family, friends or distant relatives are invited to witness the ketubah, which is considered an honour. The witnesses must be halakhically competent witnesses, and so cannot be a blood relative of the couple. In Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, women are also not considered to be valid witnesses. The ketubah is handed to the bride for safekeeping.
Display
Ketubot are often hung prominently in the home by the married couple as a daily reminder of their vows and responsibilities to each other.However, in some communities, the ketubah is either displayed in a very private section of the home or is not displayed at all. Various reasons given for this include the fact that the details specify personal details, prominent display may invite jealousy or fears of the evil eye
Evil eye
The evil eye is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike...
. Historically, the ketubah specified whether the bride was a virgin. In Sephardic communities, it still specifies the actual contributions of the family to the new household and the divorce settlement; Ashkenazi communities have adopted the custom of having set amounts for all weddings.
Conditio sine qua non
According to Jewish law, spouses are prohibited from engaging in marital relations if the ketubah has been destroyed, lost, or is otherwise unretrievable. In such case a second ketubah is made up (called a Ketubah De'irketa), which states in its opening phrase that it comes to substitute a previous ketubah that has been lost.See also
- Glossary of wedding terms for definitions of other wedding terms
- JudaismJudaismJudaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
- Jewish view of marriageJewish view of marriageIn Judaism, marriage is viewed as a contractual bond commanded by God in which a man and a woman come together to create a relationship in which God is directly involved. Though procreation is not the sole purpose, a Jewish marriage is also expected to fulfill the commandment to have children. The...
- NikahNikahMarriage in Islam is an Islamic prenuptial contract between a man and woman to live as husband and wife. It is a formal, binding contract considered integral to a religiously valid Islamic marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom and bride involved in marriage proceedings...
(Muslim marriage contract) - Quaker weddingQuaker weddingQuaker weddings are the traditional ceremony of marriage within the Religious Society of Friends.-Quaker marriage in history:After the local meeting had approved the couple's intention, an announcement would be made and posted in the market on market day. After this the wedding could take place...
(Christian marriage "by declaration" signed by all witnesses present at wedding)
External links
- The Ketubah Collection
- Ketubbot collection, Jewish National and University Library
- Art of the Ketubah: Decorated Jewish Marriage Contracts From the digital collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University
http://kuvinoren.com/gallery/wedding-contracts.html
http://www.ketubahworkshop.com/history.html