Can we include the ‘Lieberman Clause’ on your Ketubah?

Of we course can!  First, lets take a step back:

As the Jewish people grow and modernize, so too have our traditions.  Each Ketubah that our team of Jewish-Argentine artists creates here at This Is Not a Ketubah is based on blending tradition and modernity.  We are excited to offer a variety of texts alongside the awesome artwork we add to the site regularly.  While many couples still prefer traditional Orthodox texts, many choose to incorporate a newer tradition, the Lieberman Clause.

Many Conservative Rabbis encourage couples to include an additional passage of Hebrew in their Ketubah as a more egalitarian version of the traditional Orthodox version.  Created in 1953 at a conference of the Rabbinical Assembly and Jewish Theological Seminary, this new section—at the suggestion of Professor Saul Lieberman—address the situation of women in the Ketubah.

Traditionally, women seeking a divorce must be first granted one by their husband; if not, she is an ‘aganah’ or ‘anchored woman’ unable to be married again. Of course, an incredible amount has changed since the first Ketubah was written thousands of years ago, leaving many to wonder if the Jewish people should old on to this concept.  At This Is Not a Ketubah, we fully support whatever couples decide, always delivering high quality, pretty, personalized Ketubot.

With even more rapid changes in recent memory, the rabbinical establishment has offered new interpretations on rabbinic text to overcome the problem of an aganah.  Couples observing a more egalitarian Judaism would appreciate Professor Lieberman’s solution to a woman bound by ‘aganah’— she may appeal to the Bet Din or traditional Jewish court of the Conservative movement in New York, who can require the husband to grant a divorce.

This Is Not a Ketubah is committed to providing couples with modern Ketubot not just in colorful, cool, original designs, but also offering a Jewish legal contract they can be comfortable with to match our times.  We’d rather not think about the end of the relationship when its just about to become official, but with reason many young fiancées want to make sure everything is 100% kosher, and we’re happy to oblige!

All of our Ketubahs can accommodate the additional text of the Lieberman Clause, or any other text a couple wishes.  We want to make your dream Ketubah come to life, from design to everything in between.  We look forward to it!

Many thanks to the great folks at RitualWell for their great explanation!

Jacob

Team Ketubah