Img. ID: 439119
  Illuminated Manuscripts  

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The following description was prepared by William Gross:

A Ketubah (Hebrew: כְּתוּבָּה ; "written thing"; pl. Ketubot) is a special type of Jewish prenuptial agreement. It is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage, and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride. The content of the Ketubah is in essence a one-way contract that formalizes the various requirements by Halacha (Jewish law) of a Jewish husband vis à vis his wife. The Jewish husband takes upon himself in the Ketubah the obligation that he will provide to his wife three major things: clothing, food and conjugal relations, and also that he will pay her a pre-specified amount of cash in the case of a divorce. Thus the content of the Ketubah essentially dictates security and protection for the woman, and her rights in the marriage.

This document is signed and then given to the bride as her property. In Italy and most of the Islamic countries in which Jews resided, such a Ketubah was often decorated, a tradition originating with the Jews in Spain. Today, generally, printed Ketubot are used.

The holiday of Shavuot, at the beginning of the summer, records the receipt from God of the Torah by the people of Israel. An unusual custom was the making of a Ketubah, or marriage contract, for Shavuot, recording the contract between God and the people of Israel as a marriage.  This custom was generally practiced in North Africa and in Italy. 

To find an Ashkenazi example is very rare. The decorative motifs and the writing identify this piece as from Galicia, probably from within a Hassidic culture. While the document is 20th-century, it uses traditional symbols, including the Tablets of the Law, a double-headed eagle with a large crown above, lions, and the four animals recorded in a famous saying from the "Pirkei Avot". Some of the text is written in an almost semi-circular form, a convention found in Hebrew manuscripts from the area of Galicia and Ukraine, generally practiced by Hassidic writers and scribes.