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THE KETUBAH:
A Jewish Marriage
Contracts
From the Talmudic Era, one of
the most beautiful and meaningful parts of a Jewish wedding ceremony is the
reading of the Ketubah also spelled: Ketuba, Ketubbah, Ketubot, Ketubas . According to Jewish law, "A man may not live
with his wife even one single hour without a Ketubah"
The Ketubah text, which is written
in Aramaic and Hebrew specifies the obligations of a man to his wife: to provide
her with food, clothing, conjugal rights and financial security. The Ketubah
stipulates the money the wife would receive should the husband die or if they
divorced.
The Orthodox Ketubah text is the
most common used today, but lately, even this traditional text has variations
should the marriage be with a convert, a widow or a divorcee. Lately the Conservative
movement added a clause, the Lieberman Clause, regarding the procedure of obtaining a Get
(a Jewish divorce). Some also may include an English translation. The Reform
and the Egalitarian Ketubot (plural) emphasize the equality of man and woman.
With the increase of interfaith marriages there are some texts provided, and
one can order an Interfaith Ketubah.
Although Jewish law specifies
the wording of the Ketubah, there is no law regarding the illumination,
decorating of the border frame, of
this document. The market provides us with printed Ketubot, but more and more
couples wish to commission a handmade, personalized, illuminated Ketubah. The couple
will express their taste and interest, or choose from a large portfolio of
Ketubot and archival manuscripts materials.
Together we will work to create
a meaningful and beautiful Ketuba, marriage contract, for the beginning of your lives together
as husband and wife.
For more insight information about
the meaning of the
Ketubbah
please read the following article
( with permission from the writer)
Ketubbah Texts Reveal Clues of Ancient Values[1]
By Eliezer Segal
At most of the Jewish weddings that I have
observed in recent years, not much emphasis was placed on the reading of the
Ketubbah, the traditional Jewish marriage contract. The prosaic legalisms
that make up this contract do not always conform to the mood of sentimental
spirituality that we consider appropriate to a wedding ceremony, and they are
often mumbled cursorily from a standardized text that is written in an
incomprehensible Aramaic dialect.
At the heart of the Ketubbah is the stipulation of monetary amounts to
be paid by the husband i n case of divorce. As practical as this matter might
be, it is considered an awkward topic to be introducing under the huppah.
Usually, the financial obligations are enumerated as a generic number of "pieces
of pure silver"--though at Israeli weddings it is still common to mention (and
haggle over) units of real currency.
Originally the Ketubbah's chief purpose was to deter the husband from
impulsively divorcing his wife. However, since the medieval enactment that
prohibits divorcing a woman without her consent, the institution of the
Ketubbah has become something of a ritual formality.
Although stereotyped uniformity characterizes the wording of almost all
current Ketubbahs, this situation has not always been the case.
Ketubbahs produced in other ages and lands demonstrate greater flexibility
and creativity in the formulation of the clauses and conditions of the marriage
contract.
Indeed, texts of Ketubbahs have been unearthed in just about every
important trove of ancient Jewish manuscripts. The earliest known Ketubbah
dates from 5th-century B.C.E., and is contained in an archive from the island of
Elephantine in the Nile, which housed a colony of Jewish mercenaries in the
employ of the Persian emperor. From the Ketubbot and other records that
were preserved there it is possible to reconstruct a vivid picture of the life
of that lost society.
Other Ketubbah texts are included among the archeological remnants of
Simeon Bar-Kokhba's revolutionary headquarters, including that of the remarkable
"Babata, daughter of Simeon," a second-century Jewish woman who left us an
invaluable purse full of assorted bills, receipts and other documents. Several
marriage-contracts are also included among the tattered fragments of the Cairo
Genizah.
Many of these documents reveal surprising departures from the versions that
are in widespread use today. The Elephantine Ketubot, for example,
include separate clauses to deal with the termination of marriages at the
initiative of either the husband or the wife. One such text contains the
following stipulation of penalty clauses for the party that asks for the
divorce:
If at some time Ananiah should stand up before the assembly and declare: `I
reject my wife Jehoshama. She shall not be my wife!' then he is obligated to pay
divorce money... And if Jehoshama should reject her husband Ananiah and declare
before him `I reject you and will not be your wife!' then she shall be obliged
to pay the `divorce money'..."
The prospect of the wife divorcing her husband would be considered impossible
by later Jewish law. However, Ketubbah clauses that define the wife's
rights to compel the husband to issue a divorce are cited in the Jerusalem
Talmud, and were written into most of the "Genizah" Ketuba
texts, which
emanate from Egypt and the Land of Israel. The wording in those documents bears
an uncanny resemblance to the formulas found in the Elephantine contracts,
composed 1500 years earlier, and indicate a continuous evolution throughout that
time.
In general, the wording of the texts from the Cairo Genizah expresses a
different approach towards marriage from the one that characterizes our
conventional Ketubbot. The latter speak only from the husband's
perspective, as the one who is acquiring a wife and accepting obligations
towards her, while the wife passively consents to the terms. The Palestinian
tradition, on the other hand, placed an emphasis on the mutuality of the
relationship. Thus, t he marriage is referred to not as nissu'in
(literally: carrying, taking), but as a shutafut, a partnership, or a
b'rit, a covenant. Some Karaite Ketubot call the bride a h\averah,
a companion. In addition to the groom's commitment to "nourish, provide for,
honour and esteem," the wife in turn promised to "serve, attend, honour and
esteem" her spouse.
The study of the Jewish marriage contract thus opens a fascinating windows
into the lives and world-views of previous generations.
http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/950216_Ketubbah.
THE HAFTARAH: For Bar Mitzvah
and Bat Mitzvah
One of the most important milestones
in the life of a Jew is the age of Bar Mitzvah, for a boy of age 13, and Bat
Mitzvah for a girl, in most cases, at the age of 12.
In preparation for this Jewish
Tradition
occasion, the child studies for many months. On the Shabbat of the celebration,
the child reads a portion from the Torah in the Synagogue. This portion is
called the Haftarah.
To commemorate this special day,
I create a personalized and illuminated Haftarah see
.
DEAL
DIRECT WITH THE ARTIST
To View many of my designs available
for Ketubot and Haftarot please visit the
Design Gallery
And remember, the elements of these designs can be mixed and matched, ALL
MY WORK IS CUSTOM MADE TO ORDER! Some limited edition prints available.