Want to start learning more about Ketubot, and why you should sign a Ketubah at your wedding?
Planning your Jewish wedding? Then you’ll definitely want to consider having a Ketubah, a Jewish marriage contract, as part of your wedding ceremony. Ketubot (the plural form of Ketubah) have been part of Jewish tradition for around 2500 years.
Want to start learning more about Ketubot, and why you should sign a Ketubah at your wedding? Read on.
What’s most striking is that, despite the span of centuries and evolution of Jewish communities throughout the diaspora, Ketubot have largely remained unchanged. And when you consider the content of Ketubot, and the tradition around them, you can start to see why.
To start off, the purpose of Ketubot has largely been ahead of its time. The Ketubah lays out the groom’s obligations toward his bride. Considering the status women had in most cultures throughout even the modern world until the last half a century, this was truly unique!
Being the world’s first prenuptial agreement, the text of Ketubot all discussed the basic needs that we have until this day—shelter, clothing, and a healthy family life. More and more, though, modern day Ketubot are expressing what we value most today: a mutual commitment to nurture a spiritual and emotional connection. Luckily, most Ketubah artists today provide Ketubah texts that address that need.
But, even with their classical basis in the legal aspect of marriage, the process of creating Ketubot have always been an artform, as well.
Across the ages and cultures, Ketubot make up a big part of classic Jewish art. Be it a Ketubah from Iran, Hungary, France or India, you’ll usually find Ketubot to be adorned with real gold and silver leafing, decadent paints and dyes, and fine art at its best.
Why are Ketubot so adorned? Why would young Jewish couples invest what little they had in a fine Ketubah at the start of their marriage?
Perhaps it’s because the Ketubah is the legal, and therefore, spiritual home of the couple. And we can all relate to wanting our home to be beautiful, and to show aspects of our own personality and sense of style.
Danny Azoulay is a world-class Ketubah artist that has been making breathtaking Ketubot for decades. Utilizing the modern, laser paper-cut technique, Azoulay features wonderful, layered designs dazzled with real gold and silver-leafing, and vibrant paintings of biblical and landscape scenes. He features Ketubot in a variety of designs and text options so that there is truly something for every Jewish couple out there.
