The History of the Ketubah (Or kesubah- by Ashkenazic pronunciation.) 

There is a debate in the Talmud as to whether the ketubah is of Biblical or Rabbinical law.   If it is of Biblical law, then the ketubah law is over three thousand four hundred years old.   If it is of Rabbinic law, it would be somewhat more recent, but certainly more than twenty two  centuries ago, since it is the subject of a tractate of the Mishnah whose laws primarily date back to the Anshe Kenesses Hagedolah as much as twenty four centuries ago.    Assuming it was of rabbinic enactment, the exact year of the enactment is not known.  

The primary reason for the requirement of the ketubah is stated in the Talmud, so that divorce would not be taken lightly.  That is,  to make the marriage more secure by setting in advance a substantial monetary settlement that would be paid to the wife upon the dissolution of the marriage.  At the same time, this settlement also provided the divorcee with some money to live on after the divorce.  A minimum was set at 50 shekalim, meant to obligate the poorest of the poor.  50 shekalim was an amount that was enough to sustain a person for one year.   When the families were not poor, the ketubah amount was a point of negotiation between the two families and the agreed upon amount was included in the ketubah contract as an additional amount (tosefet ketubah).  The Talmud relates that the daughter of Nakdimon b. Gurion’s ketubah was more than one million golden dinari, which was the equivalent of twenty five million silver dinari, (at a time when the average laborer earned 4 dinari for a day’s work.)

The same lump sum amount  would be paid to a widow from the deceased husband estate, however in the case of widowhood, the wife had the option to continue living in the house of the deceased, and be supported by the estate until she remarries.  

The ketubah also stated other obligations, some of Biblical law as well, requiring the husband to provide food, (which includes medical care), clothing and providing her conjugal rights.

The Text of the Ketubah

Many of the phrases that were incorporated in the original ketubah as stated in the Talmud no longer appear in the present day ketubah.  This has been the case for many centuries.  The present text common in all Ashkenazic lands is taken from the authoritative work “Nachlas Shiva” written in the seventeenth century by Rabbi Shmuel Segal (1662-1668).  (The text of present day Sefardic ketubot, although a bit more wordy than Ashkenazic ones, is basically the same.) The omissions include the obligation to pay ransom in case the wife is kidnapped, and to pay for her funeral if she dies before the husband.  These obligations need not be stated explicitly in the ketubah, because these are mandatory marriage obligation and its documentation is unnecessary.

The original primary purpose of the ketubah is no longer material, since the present halacha prohibits divorce without mutual consent except in rare circumstances.  The monetary considerations due to divorce are therefore negotiated between the two parties, and prior agreements are no longer needed. The most important phrase in today’s Ketubah is the husband’s written promise stating  ” I will work for you, honor you, and support and provide for all your needs, and live together with you as is the way of Jewish husbands who work, honor, and support their wives with honesty”.

The Monetary Value

Although in case of divorce the amount paid to the wife is, of necessity, negotiated, nonetheless, there is the amount commonly added in Ashkenazic Ketubot,  is the sum is 200 zekukim of silver.  According to Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, one zakuk is equivalent to one pound of silver.  One pound of silver is equal to 12 troy ounces, so the value comes to the value of 2400 troy ounces of silver.  In today’s market an ounce of silver is worth $29 which places the value of the kesubah obligation at $69,600.  Of course, this will fluctuate with the change of the price of silver since in our times silver is a commodity.  

The value of the obligation for support is based on the standard of living of the family of the husband and the family of the wife, whichever is greater.

Illuminated Ketubot

There is no requirement whatsoever for a ketubah to be decorative.  The vast majority of ketubot throughout the ages have been handwritten text on plain paper.  In Spain during the medieval times, the idea of artistic ketubot became  somewhat popular.  Understandably, only the wealthy class could afford to pay an artist to fashion a unique ketubah design and those in middle and lower class would suffice with a simple document.  Nonetheless, the competition to beautify the ketubah led to high prices to the extent that the rabbis of the time put a limit as to how much one is permitted to expend on this luxury item.  In today’s times an illuminated ketubah is quite affordable for almost everyone, which is the reason of its relatively recent popularity.

After the expulsion from Spain in 1492, Jews who settled in Italy kept up the tradition of illuminating their ketubot.  The ketubah pictured below was from Ancona, Italy 1722.  It is one of the oldest surviving illuminated ketubot, housed today  in the Library of Congress, Washington DC.