KETUBA (Part 2): The financial obligations and the signing

The Ketuba is the document that records the obligations of a Jewish husband toward his wife. Its text has three parts:

1. The date and place of the wedding and the names of the bride and groom (see KETUBA, Part 1).

2. The husband’s obligations toward his wife while they are married, summarized in the three principal biblical duties (see The Rights Of A Jewish Wife).

3. The financial obligations the husband assumes, in particular the monetary compensation his wife is to receive if, God forbid, the marriage is dissolved. This is in fact the most important section of the document and by far the longest, roughly 75% of the text. The amount is calculated from three elements:

1. Iqar Ketuba, the basic sum of the Ketuba.

2. The Nedunya, or dowry.

3. The Tosefet, or additions to the principal sum.

IQAR KETUBA: this is the sum Jewish law sets as the minimum compensation a woman is entitled to receive from her husband if the marriage is dissolved. There is a debate among the rabbis as to whether this compensation is biblical in origin (Rashi) or rabbinic (Maimonides). The sum, also called the mohar, is two hundred zuz. While the present-day monetary value of those two hundred zuz is disputed among contemporary authorities, in Talmudic times two hundred zuz was what a person needed to support himself for one year: food, clothing, lodging. In other words, it is the equivalent of a year’s basic wages.

NEDUNYA: the second element is the nedunya, often translated as “the dowry.” It includes all the valuables and assets the wife brings into the estate of her new family. The Ketuba gives as examples silver and gold items, jewelry, utensils, bedding, clothing. These are mentioned explicitly to show that the woman is not arriving at the marriage empty-handed. Technically the husband has the right to use the assets of the dowry if he needs to, but he accepts responsibility for any losses. These assets become for him what Talmudic Hebrew calls “iron sheep” (tson barzel), meaning that his financial responsibility for them never expires. So if the marriage is dissolved, the husband must restore to his wife the dowry recorded in the Ketuba, or its value, over and above the sum mentioned earlier.

Now, regardless of the actual value of the dowry, the ancient custom is to record the wife’s assets at the fixed sum of “one hundred pieces of silver” (mea zequqim dekhesef), which by some opinions, at today’s silver prices, would be roughly $17,000. That was the average value of what a bride brought in her dowry. Why record a uniform sum rather than what each bride actually brings? Jewish tradition holds that this uniformity avoids any distinction between a bride from a wealthy family and one who is not. It spares the embarrassment of the one and the ostentation of the other. So whatever the value of the dowry a bride brings into her marriage, the husband obligates himself to restore it, if the marriage is dissolved, at the fixed sum of one hundred pieces of silver.

TOSEFET: the third component is the voluntary additions. Two are normally added. First, the increment on the dowry, traditionally equal to the dowry itself: the husband doubles its value with another hundred pieces of silver. Second, there is an increment to the principal Ketuba that the husband pledges to his wife. In some communities the amount of this increment is stated in local currency. In others, to avoid mentioning sums of money at a wedding ceremony, the text says only that the husband will add an increment to the principal sum without specifying an amount. The figure is generally set according to local custom.

As the reader will understand, the money mentioned in the Ketuba has nothing to do with money the husband “pays for the bride” or to her family. Those are prejudices based on ignorance of what the Ketuba actually says. The Ketuba is a marriage insurance policy, in which the man declares that if the marriage is dissolved he will compensate his wife with a significant sum, restore the assets she and her family contributed, and add to that whatever additional increments local custom calls for.

THE KETUBA AS A COLLECTIBLE DEBT

עד שבא שמעון בן שטח ותיקן שיהא כותב לה: כל נכסי אחראין לכתובה (כתובות פ”ב)

The Ketuba, then, is similar to marriage insurance: if the marriage is dissolved, it establishes the sum the husband has to pay his wife as compensation. Its function is to protect her. Without the Ketuba, a divorced woman could be left alone and unprotected, as was the case in most non-Jewish civilizations until modern times. The Ketuba makes sure this does not happen to a Jewish woman. And at the same time, as the rabbis explained, it serves as a powerful deterrent against a husband making the rash decision to divorce his wife, knowing that if he does he takes on a serious financial burden.

Originally the Ketuba was more of a mohar, a gift or inheritance the husband voluntarily left his wife. This created a situation in which many women remained unmarried, out of fear that their husbands would leave them with nothing. For that reason a number of clauses were added at the end of the text so that it could be collected even if the husband did not have enough liquid assets to cover its value. The text states that if the husband does not have the money to compensate his wife in the event of divorce or death, his property will be seized and executed by the Bet Din, the rabbinical court, to pay the value of the Ketuba to his ex-wife or his widow.

This clause was established by Rabbi Shimon ben Shatah (120–40 BCE), who is credited with formulating, or reformulating, the Ketuba. In other words, he turned the Ketuba into a collectible debt rather than a voluntary gift or bequest. So after calculating the total compensation, the text lists a long series of clauses stating that all real property (qarqa) and movable possessions (metaltelim) are mortgaged to this Ketuba. The groom commits to paying the Ketuba even with “the shirt on his shoulders.” And he commits that the Ketuba will be binding on his heirs, who may not necessarily be his wife’s children, during his lifetime and after it.

THE SIGNING OF THE KETUBA

Finally, the Ketuba is signed by two witnesses. But before that, it is formally and legally accepted by the husband through a legal procedure called qinyan. The qinyan is done as a barter (qinyan sudar or halifin), an exchange in which goods or services are traded for other goods or services. Here the officiating rabbi hands the groom an object — usually a handkerchief, a pen, or anything else except food or coins — and the groom declares qibbalti alay beqinyan…, “I formally accept upon myself all the obligations of the Ketuba.” Then, lifting the object he received from the rabbi, the groom acquires it, and in exchange transfers the rights of the Ketuba to his wife.

After the qinyan is performed, the Ketuba, which is written from the point of view of the witnesses, states VEQANINAN… “And we have acquired (that is, we have witnessed the procedure of acquisition, or qinyan) from the groom… to the bride… and we attest that all is valid and confirmed (sharir veqayam).” These last words are the rabbinic formula indicating that the document is complete, so nothing further may be added to the text of the Ketuba except the signatures of the two witnesses and of the groom.

Rabbi Yosef Bitton