Obj. ID: 48915 Ketubbah, Essaouira, 1908
sub-set tree:
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.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, most Moroccan Ketubot were printed examples on paper. But in Essaouira there was one rabbi/scribe who continued the tradition of painting Ketubot on parchment, as had been done in Tetuan. However, as opposed to the Islamic decorative style used in the Ketubot of Tetuan and earlier examples from Mogador, Rabbi David Elkaim, the foremost Jewish artist in Mogador in his lifetime, painted the Ketubot in a European classical style, much as was done in Gibraltar. He worked from the middle of the 1880's into the late1920's. He usually signed his name at the bottom of the marriage contracts, as in this example. This wedding took place in Mogador on Thursday February 4, 1908 (2 Adar II 5668).
Bride: Aisa bat Machlouf ben Avraham Amsalam
Groom: Sa'adia ben Rachamim ben Aharon Ibn Chaim