Kesubah Conundrums

An individual was applying for a rabbinic position upon the receipt of his semichah. Apparently, the members of the congregation with the open position weren’t too learned. During his interview, the congregants requested to see his semichah. However, the most extraordinary semichos actually don’t look too impressive; many semichos given out by the gedolim are handwritten on ordinary paper. My father-in-law’s semichah from HaRav Moshe Feinstein, zt”l, is a good example. To the untrained eye, it appears to be just an ordinary piece of paper with Hebrew writing on it. The newly ordained rabbi, fearing his handwritten semichah wouldn’t make a good impression, came back and showed them his exquisite kesubah! That’s one possible use for an invalid kesubah.

At an out-of-town wedding, the kesubah that the chassan ordered was a masterpiece. There was only one problem: it was pasul. There were no other kesubos available, so, under the guidance of one of the rabbis present, a bachur with neat handwriting sat down to write another kesubah. What do you do with a pasul piece of art? You hang it on a wall! Rabbi Dovid Yankelewitz (who wrote my father’s kesubah) told me that he saw a beautiful kesubah hanging on someone’s wall with no signatures on it. It was a custom kesubah that the officiating rabbi refused to accept. An artistically inferior kesubah was used instead. The kosher one was put away somewhere safe.

It is important to keep the kesubah in a safe place. Why? R’ Meir stated in the Mishnah (Kesubos 54b) that if one makes a stipulation to reduce the value of the kesubah to less than the required minimum, a couple cannot live together as husband and wife. This is true despite the fact that R’ Meir holds such a stipulation to be null and void. R’ Meir held that there is a rabbinic enactment that a woman should feel secure about her kesubah. Since the stipulation causes the woman to have some measure of doubt as to whether or not she will, in fact, be able to collect all the monies rightfully due to her upon the termination of her marriage, the sages deemed it to be considered as if she had no kesubah. The Gemara (57a) says that R’ Meir would hold likewise in a situation where a woman lost her written kesubah. Rav Nachman said in the name of Shmuel that the halacha is in accordance with R’ Meir, and this is the accepted halacha. Therefore, if a woman’s kesubah is lost or destroyed, a new kesubah must be written. There is a special text that is used for a replacement kesubah. The Shulchan Aruch writes that a husband and wife may not even be secluded together without a kesubah.

The Rema writes that there is an opinion that nowadays (for the past thousand years), due to the cherem of Rabbeinu Gershom saying that a halachic divorce must be mutual; we can be lenient and permit a couple to live together as husband as wife without a kesubah. Chazal wanted the wife to feel somewhat secure that due to the fact that her husband will be obligated to pay a kesubah, he won’t divorce her on a whim. Since currently a man is not allowed to give a get to his wife against her will, she has no reason to be concerned in any case. However, the Rema writes that we don’t follow this opinion. Dr. Eric Thall opined that perhaps nowadays there may be more of a reason to rely on this line of reasoning. The dollar value of the actual kesubah (200 zuz) is pretty low (see below). In a court settlement, no woman would feel insecure about collecting $519 from their husband.

What if a new kesubah cannot be immediately written? One possible solution is that the husband can give his wife a collateral equal to the value of the kesubah (not necessarily the tosefes). Then, at his earliest opportunity, he should have a new kesubah written. The value of 200 zuz, which is 960 grams of silver according to the Rema (per the Chazon Ish), is about $519 based upon the price of silver at $16.80 a troy ounce. (A troy ounce is 31.103 grams.) (There are other variables involved. In case of need, seek out rabbinical guidance.)

Five-hundred-nineteen dollars is a pretty paltry sum for a kesubah, especially since it’s supposed to be somewhat of a deterrent against a quick divorce. Rav Moshe Feinstein writes that therefore the Ashkenazi custom is to add two hundred zekukim kesef to the kesubah – 100 is a flat rate for all the property the wife brings into the marriage and 100 as an additional sum.

There is a disagreement about how to value the 200 additional pieces of silver. According to the Vilna Gaon, it is equivalent to 57,600 grams of silver. That is worth about $31,000.00 in today’s prices ($16.80/troy ounce)! The Derisha, though, differs and says the value is 3,846 grams of silver, which is only worth $2,077 in today’s prices.

Another application of R’ Meir’s law is when a woman discovers that her kesubah is invalid. An invalid kesubah is tantamount to no kesubah at all with all the relevant halachic implications.

The halachos of legal documents are complex, and a kesubah is no exception. Listed here are two common issues that might possibly render a kesubah invalid:

Blank spaces left on a kesubah: In general, blank spaces left on any legal document are a problem, because one can write something in after the witnesses have signed. A line should be drawn through the blank spaces the same way a line is drawn through the blank space on the dollar value of a check.

Cross-outs and words written between lines: If words are crossed out on a kesubah, how do we know if that was done before or after the kesubah was signed? Likewise, if words are written in between lines, maybe those words were added after the kesubah was signed. In both of these situations, the irregularities should be noted at the end of the kesubah before the signature of the witnesses. (This way we can assume any changes not noted on the kesubah must have been done later.) If there are irregularities on the kesubah and it was not noted, a rav should be consulted.

The author thanks (alphabetically) Rabbi Moshe Kaufman, Rabbi Yosef Sebrow, Dr. Eric Thall, and Rabbi Dovid Yankelewitz for their assistance.