Do you display your ketuvah? Was it professionally calligraphied? Are you happy with it? Did a professional do it? A friend? Is it printed or hand drawn? Do you consider it a work of art suitable for framing and display? Do you davka not display it as if it were anything other than an important document? How did you choose your ketuvah? Were there any issues with the wording? Did the rabbi demand anything unusual? Do you mind if guests read it? Did you ever lose it? Is your displayed ketuvah the same as the original one from under the chuppah? Would you do anything different if you had the opportunity to go back in time?
If not yet married, do you have anything in particular you have in mind you want in a ketuvah?

no, no, I guess so, no, no, printed, not really, I guess so, it's the standard one the rabbi uses (unless something else is requested), none, no, I wouldn't mind, I misplaced it once in a move, it's not displayed, I would have done it the same way.

When I was married, I had a beautiful professionally calligraphied ksuva that was made for me by a cousin who does artistic ksuvos for a living, and it was framed and displayed in my home. After I got divorced, the people at the Bes Din kept it.

I display my kesuva. my cousin made it for us it is a paper cut and calligraphied. I really like it a lot. We had issues because I am adopted apparently the wording is different, I became bas avraham avinu. Although I know people who think it shouldn't be shown because it should be private.
weird story, I know someone who got really mad at her husband and she ripped up the kesuva and mailed it to him at his parent's house. They are still married now (9 years) but they had to sleep separately until they had a new one made.
krum - why did they keep your kesuva? would you have wanted it back?

Plain and currently residing in a drawer in our bedroom.

We have a beautiful ketubah which our two best friends bought us for our wedding. The only thing of note is that it does not include our mothers' name, which very much upset my mother to the point of hysterical tears a week or two before my wedding. In hindsight, I wish I would have included the mothers' names because it meant so much to her. We would have it displayed but we don't have the money to frame it right now. When we moved across the country, my husband carried it the whole way on the plane so it wouldn't have a chance to get lost, but we know a couple who were told they could put theirs on a freight shipment from Israel.

The rabbanut has a copy of mine, just in case anything happens to it.

Do you take it out for "special occasions"? *wink wink*

Yes, yes, yes, yes a professional but it was printed. It is hanging in the living room. Since there is a long history of ketubahs being an artistically decorated object I feel fine about displaying it. My landlord was in our apt on Monday and said how nice it is.
I picked it on the internet. The artist is the same one that 25+ years ago, when he was only starting out in the business, made my parents ketuvah. I think thats a cute story.

I'm not married yet. I don't really get the whole hanging the ketuba on a wall thing - it properly belongs in a safe deposit box in her name only - but I won't object if my wife wants it on the wall since it's hers anyways. One thing I will insist on, which is related to the ketuba, is the agunah prenup. As one of my Rebbeim put it, the people who sign the prenup are not the people who need to sign it, but hopefully by soing so it becomes more acceptable and commonplace and eventually everyone (at least everyone in our community) will do so and it will catch the people who really need it too.

What is it?

9

No. No. Yes. No. An acquaintance is a better word. Printed. Yes. Yes, we davka do not display it. No. No. No (well, temporarily forgot my husband told me he moved it but other than that, no). I don't have one on display. Yes. Tell the person who gave it to us, I would prefer a regular 8-1/2*11 sheet of paper so I can file it properly and not a big huge one with fancy flowers that really has no good place to store.


Why is that bad?


very weird, in my opinion. Especially since it's the wife's collatoral, why would she tear up her own document that will be helpful for her?


I don't know if this is acceptable halachik'ly. I believe it needs to be in a place where she can easily retrieve it.

It's a prenuptial agreement that essentially says that if Beis Din decides that he should give her a Get he begins to owe her a fixed amount of money (currently it's 150 a day, but they track inflation) for each day that he doesn't give it. It's used to give enforcement teeth to a Beis Din, which is historically filled by beating the guy until he says "rotze ani" but is realistically not feasible in most cases today. At one point there was a serious movement to write it directly into the ketuba (Rav Soloveitchik and R' Saul Lieberman worked on a text which the Conservative movement currently uses) which makes sense because the ketuba itself is - and was intended by Chazal to be - a prenup dealing with assets in the case of divorce, to ensure the woman was treated fairly. However, RYBS pulled out when it became apparent that Chareidim would not recognize such an altered ketuba (mostly for reasons that were not strictly halachic) and instead began to advocate for a legal prenup - in essence a second ketuba that added in the additional conditions. YU Rabbonim push this heavily, with the goal to make it ubiquitous. at least for their community, in a generation or two, and hopefully solve the aguna crisis. Yeshivish people tend not to use it, and their Rabbis tend not to approve of it, but crucially they don't consider it a halachic problem with the marriage, unlike the Lieberman clause ketuba which Conservatives use.

(Edit: my understanding is that MO Rabbonim also have a problem with the Lieberman clause in it's current form - the compromise version that RYBS was working on was apparently more acceptable, but the Chareidim wouldn't accept any clause on principle, and so in the end the Conservatives did it on their own without Orthodox input. In no way does a bad ketuba make a marriage invalid, but it has halachic consequences in the case of divorce, and if the couple ever decided to follow Orthodox halacha they need a new ketuba before continuing to live together.)



It needs to be in her possession. A safe deposit box is halachically a great place to keep it - she can get it at any time, and no one else can.

Because it was a gift and very nicely made, and I would have wanted to at least keep the margin, but well...

No, no, don't think about it much, no, no, printed, no, nothing really b'davka, I didn't, yes, not that I know of, no, no, n/a, yes.

Not displayed (but I might like to in the future if I could get it framed). Not professionally done (one of those buy-at-the-local-Jew-store and fill in your names). I remember being happy with it but I haven't seen it in so long that I'm not sure I 100% remember what it looks like. I consider it suitable for framing and got one with a pretty design around it with the intention of having it framed and displayed. No issues with the wording but there was an issue on whether the names written in needed to match the calligraphy of the preprinted text. The 3 different big-name rabbeim (in 3 different cities) gave different answers to the calligraphy issue and made for a very long delay. I wouldn't mind if guests read it if it were displayed but since it's rolled up and stored in my bedroom closet, I would greatly mind if someone went in there and read it. Never lost it. Same as original. Can't think of anything I would have done differently.

wow, this is unbelievable (in a good way), coming from a guy.




ever heard of women and emotions?

does the beis din keep the kesubah when giving the get?

We are having a traditional, Western Sephardic ketubah drafted by my rabbi. It will not be displayed, but rather be locked up in her safe, where no one else has access to it. Furthermore, there will be no public reading or signing of the ketubah at our wedding.

The public reading of the ketuba at an Ashkenazi wedding is intended to serve as a division between the airusin and nesuin ceremonies under the chuppa. Sefardim do not do nesuin under the chuppa, but only after, and so no division is necessary.

Reading the ketuba is considered a major kavod at Sphardi weddings*, as opposed to Ashkenazi ones.

*At least some Sphardim.

Yeah except they don't read the Kesuva they SING it....

I remember there was some sort of issue with the kesubah, I think because my father was niftar the name was supposedly different. Thank God DH had brought a back-up and my wonderful BIL ran around getting the new kesubah re-written while everyone else was taking pictures.

It was a major kavod at our wedding (and we're ashky)

That's factually incorrect. The Spanish-Portuguese and Judeo-Spanish both enact erusin under the huppah.



Which Sephardim would that be, Western (Spanish-Portuguese) or Eastern (Turkey and Rhodes)? The former do not read it at all, and the latter do not offer it out as a kebod, but rather have it chanted by the hakam.

My husbands family is Turkish---My FIL sang it by our wedding, but for the life of me I cannot remember what was done by my BIL's weddings. SIL married an ashkenazi, so it was mumbled about in some corrupt version of Hebrew.

I will want an English translation written alongside the Aramaic.

It's really not that interesting....

Why?

For the record, here's a translation from the Internet http://www.judaica-guide.com/ketubah_translation/:
Mind you, I'm not sure about the translations of "mohar betulaichi" and "nedunya".

On the ______day of the week, the _________day of the month ______ in the year five thousand seven hundred and ______ since the creation of the world, the era according to which we reckon here in the city of _________________ that ________ son of _________ said to this (virgin) _________daughter of _____. "Be my wife according to the practice of Moses and Israel, and I will cherish, honor, support and maintain you in accordance with the custom of Jewish husbands who cherish, honor, support and maintain their wives faithfully. And I here present you with the marriage gift of (virgins), (two hundred) silver zuzim, which belongs to you, according the the law of Moses and Israel; and I will also give you your food, clothing and necessities, and live with you as husband and wife according to universal custom." And Miss_____, this (virgin) consented and became his wife. The trousseau that she brought to him from her (father's) house in silver, gold, valuables, clothing, furniture and bedclothes, all this ________, the said bridegroom accepted in the sum of (one hundred ) silver pieces, and ______ the bridegroom, consented to increase this amount from his own property with the sum of (one hundred) silver pieces, making in all (two hundred) silver pieces. And thus said __________, the bridegroom: "The responsibility of this marriage contract, of this trousseau, and of this additional sum, I take upon myself and my heirs after me, so that they shall be paid from the best part of my property and possession that I have beneath the whole heaven, that which I now possess or may hereafter acquire. All my property, real and personal, even the shirt from my back, shall be mortgaged to secure the payment of this marriage contract, of the trousseau, and of the addition made to it, during my lifetime and after my death, from the present day and forever." _______, the bridegroom, has taken upon himself the responsibility of this marriage contract, of the trousseau and the addition made to it, according to the restrictive usages of all marriage contracts and the additions to them made for the daughters of Israel, according to the institution of our sages of blessed memory. It is not to be regarded as a mere forfeiture without consideration or as a mere formula of a document. We have followed the legal formality of symbolic delivery (kinyan) between ______the son of _______, the bridegroom and _______ the daughter of _______ this (virgin), and we have used a garment legally fit for the purpose, to strengthen all that is stated above, and everything is valid and confirmed.

Attested to________________________ Witness
Attested to________________________ Witness

Who said they didn't? They don't enact nesuin under the chuppa, because they follow the Rambam that true nesuin only happens when they go home after the wedding. (Rav Ovadia Yosef has an interesting piece justifying the hours-long hefsek between the birkat nesuin under the chuppa and the actual halacha nesuin when they enter their new home.)

I love this one:



Jermuk, Armenia, 1920

Be sure to click to enlarge:

http://jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/ketubbot/html/k0365.htm

I misread your post. Still, they do read the berakoth for nisuin under the huppah, regardless of when yihud happens. However, you do make a valid point regarding the difference between the berakah and the actual action. Anyways, apologies for misreading what you wrote!!

Because otherwise it's just a meaningless piece of paper.

No, Yes - by a soifer, yes - haven't given it much thought though, yes, he is also a friend of my husband's parents i think, not sure, i wouldn't hang it up or frame it but it is nice, don't see why it needs displaying, i didn't choose - my husband gave it to me , not displayed but the one i have is the original, wouldn't do anything different.


Apparently it is also not an easy document to read and not everyone will accept the honour of reading it (as was discovered under my chuapah when the 'wrong' person was reading the kesubah).