The Talmud on the Ketubah

b. Ketubbot 82b

220–600

About This Entry

The ketubah, or marriage contract, is designed to protect the wife financially in case of divorce or the death of her husband. It grants her the right to a specific sum of money—determined by whether it is her first marriage or she is a widow or divorcée—sufficient to provide for her needs. On the occasion of divorce or the husband’s death, the husband’s property automatically becomes encumbered to satisfy his wife’s ketubah, over and above any other debts he may owe. The ketubah also limits her claims against his property, as a woman returning to her husband cannot seek to benefit from two ketubot.

This passage from the Babylonian Talmud offers a history of the ketubah and explains that as long as the requirement was to maintain fluid cash for the ketubah, marriage was prohibitive to anyone but the wealthy, and it was too easy to divorce one’s wife. Simeon ben Shetaḥ ruled that a document stating that all the husband’s property is guaranteed for the payment of the wife’s ketubah would suffice, which made marriage more financially feasible and also created more of a legal process for divorce. This system is reflected in m. Ketubbot 8:8, which explains that one does not hold property of monies designated as ketubah monies during the marriage. Rather, all of a husband’s property is guaranteed for its payment upon a divorce.

R. Judah said: At first they would write for a virgin two hundred [dinars] and for a widow one hundred dinars. [They would then demand that this amount be available in cash,] and [then the men] would grow old and would not marry women, [as they did not all possess such large sums of money,] until Simeon ben Shetaḥ came and instituted [an ordinance that a man need not place the money aside in practice. Rather,] all of his property is guaranteed for her marriage contract.

That [opinion] is also taught [in a baraita]: At first, they would write for a virgin two hundred and for a widow one hundred dinars, and they would grow old and would not marry women, [since the women were concerned that their marriage contract money would be wasted or lost, and they had no guarantee that it would be collected. The sages therefore] instituted [an ordinance] that they should place it, [the sum of the marriage contract,] in her father’s house, [thereby ensuring its safekeeping]. And still [problems arose, as] when he was angry at [his wife, he would] say to her, “Go to your marriage contract,” [as it was too easy for them to divorce].

[Therefore, the sages] instituted [an ordinance] that they would place it in her father-in-law’s house, [i.e., in her husband’s house. And] wealthy [women] would craft [their marriage contract money into] baskets of silver and of gold, [while] poor [ones] would craft it [into] a large vessel [for the collection] of urine, [as their marriage contract was large enough only for a small vessel].

And still, when he was angry at her, he [would] say to her, “Take your marriage contract and leave,” until Simeon ben Shetaḥ came and instituted [an ordinance] that [he does not actually give her the money for her marriage contract. Rather,] he should write to her: All my property is guaranteed for her marriage contract.

Translation adapted from the Noé Edition of the Koren Talmud Bavli.

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Notes

Words in brackets appear in the original translation.

Credits

From Koren Talmud Bavli, Noé Edition, trans. Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers Jerusalem, 2019). Accessed via the William Davidson digital edition, sefaria.org. Adapted with permission of Koren Publishers Ltd.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.