The Mishnah on the Ketubah
m. Ketubbot 5:1
Although [the sages] have said: A virgin collects two hundred [zuz]1 and a widow one maneh [100 zuz] [as her ketubah], if [the groom] wishes to add even a hundred maneh, he may do so. If she was widowed or divorced, either after betrothal or after marriage, she is entitled to collect the entire amount. R. Eleazar ben Azaryah says: [A woman widowed or divorced] after marriage receives the entire amount; after betrothal [but before marriage], a virgin collects [only] two hundred [zuz] and a widow [only] one maneh, for he wrote her [the additional amount] in order to marry her. R. Judah says: If he wishes, he may write for a virgin a document for two hundred [zuz], and she writes, “I have received from you a maneh,” or for a widow [he may write a document for] a maneh and she writes, “I have received from you fifty zuz.” R. Meir says: Any man who gives a virgin less than two hundred zuz or a widow less than a maneh is engaging in licentious sex.
m. Ketubbot 8:8
So too, a man may not say to his wife, “Behold, your ketubah lies on the table”; rather, all of his property has on it a lien from her ketubah. If he divorced her, she is entitled only to her ketubah. If he remarried her, she is like all other wives and is entitled only to her ketubah.
Notes
[In rabbinic texts, zuz is used interchangeably with dinar.—Ed.]
Credits
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 2: Emerging Judaism.
