Ketubah

A ketubah (/kɛtuːˈbɑː/; Hebrew: כְּתוּבָּה) is a Jewish marriage contract. 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. In modern practice, the ketubah has no agreed monetary value, and is seldom enforced by civil courts, except in Israel.

According to the Babylonian Talmud, the ketubah was enacted by Simeon ben Shetach so that it might not be a light thing for a man to divorce his wife. The enactment provides for a man's wife to receive a fixed sum of money, usually accruing from his property, in the event of his divorcing her or of his predeceasing her. Sefer ha-Chinuch suggests a different reason: "...the Torah has commanded us to perform an act before taking a wife, a matter that is intended to show that they are a couple united in wedlock before he lies down with her carnally, and that he not come upon her as one would do to a harlot, where there is no other act that precedes what goes on between them..."

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 price). The ketubah served as a contract, 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. 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. Both the mohar and the ketubah amounts served the same purpose: the protection for the wife should her support by her husband (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 alimony in the event of divorce.

The ketubah amount served as a disincentive for the husband contemplating divorcing his wife: he would need to have the amount in order to be able to pay to his wife. Unless the husband pledged otherwise, the minimum obligation towards a man's virgin bride is 200 silver denaria (מאתים זוז‎), known as the principal (or dower's price), and 100 silver denaria (מאה זוז‎) for a man who married a widow or divorced woman. This was paid in full from a man's property in the event of his divorcing her during her lifetime, or of his pre-deceasing her. This same sum, according to Mishnaic exegete Obadiah of Bertinoro, who cites Maimonides, is always 1⁄8 the weight of the 'Shekel of the Sanctuary' (Tyrian coinage), which for every 200 shekels in Tyrian coinage, only 25 were required to be pledged in a virgin's ketubah, a sum equivalent to 200 provincial silver denaria. Based on the anatomical weight of 25 shekels in Tyrian coinage, the minimum amount vouched in a virgin's ketubah amounted to 504 grams of fine silver.

Monies pledged in a woman's ketubah can be written in local currencies, but must have the transactional market-value of the aforementioned weight in silver. Most ketubot also contain an additional liability, known as the "additional jointure" (Heb. תוספת‎ = increment), whereby the groom pledges additional money to his bride. In Ashkenazi tradition, the custom is to consolidate these different financial obligations, or pledges, into one single, aggregate sum. In other Jewish communities, the custom was to write out all financial obligations as individual components.

The ketubah of Babatha, a 2nd-century woman who lived near the Dead Sea, was discovered in 1960 in the Cave of Letters.

A comparable Aramaic marriage contract, belonging to an Idumaean couple, was inscribed on seven ostraca discovered at Maresha and dated to 176 BCE; it is the earliest known marriage contract written on pottery in Israel and shows parallels to the Mishnaic version of the Jewish ketubah and to Egyptian Demotic marriage contracts.

Over two hundred ketubot were discovered, among other manuscripts, in the Cairo Geniza. They date between the 6th and 19th centuries and, whilst many consist of plain text, there are examples that use decorative devices such as micrography and illumination to elaborate them.