The short answer to the question of, “who should sign the ketubah?” is:

1. Traditionally, the witnesses are the only people who sign it.

2. More recently, rabbis have begun signing it as well.

3. Even more recently, the couples are now more commonly signing it themselves, too.

The Ketubah was traditionally a social document — a commitment made in front of the entire community. The community is the witness. That’s why, the most important part of the Ketubah is the witnesses.

This is a bit similar to the legal notion of a public notary: a commitment is firm and legal when it is witnessed by other people! It’s also related to the the Jewish variation of the concept of an oath: making a promise before the others of what you will do.

However, many rabbis — and, these days, even the couples themselves! — often love signing it as well.

Here at Ketubah HQ, our general attitude is: the most important part is the witness, and we will never change or sacrifice that.

However, if you want to add in more witnesses; or rabbis or officiants; or the couple themselves — we’ll do it! You need to just let us know! (We’ll ask you–so don’t worry. We won’t forget to make this clear to you!).

Here is an excellent and useful page from Chabad about the text and signing of the Ketubah, including the V’kenina and many other details. You can read it if you want more information but really, you don’t need to worry about it since we’ll hold your hand and step you through the entire process.

As we create Ketubot in more and more languages, here’s another one on our radar… Tagalog, the beautiful language of the Philippines!

Recently, we’ve had a bunch of requests to create a Tagalog Ketubah, so we’re now looking into it!

It’s wonderful and heart-warming for us to see so many cultures mixing together in this wonderful way!

We have a lot of languages in our repertoire already: Spanish, German, French, Chinese… and it’s also exciting to add another!

I’ll confess: I knew almost nothing about the history of the Jews in the Philippines. But it turns out — unsurprisingly! — that there is a long and intense history of the Jews in the Philippines, including the Levy Brothers and Leopold Kahn from France, who emigrated there and created a few industries in the Philippines. Surprise, surprise — and this makes me want to go visit the Philippines, even more than I had wanted to!

By the way, fascinating blog from a Rabbi Eliyahu Azaria in the Philippines — of Beit Yaacov! The Rabbi is originally from Chicago, and I’ve never thought of going to the Philippines before but now I want to, more every moment!

If you’re also interested in a Tagalog Ketubah — then drop us a note to say hi! :)

-morgan
Team Ketubah

Excellent article today on Bagel Ketubahs about the valid and binding nature of gay, lesbian, same-sex, LGBT ketubahs.

That article quotes one of my favorite Jewish jokes: “One Jew, Two Opinions” :)

Short answer: YES, YES, YES!

Longer answer: We get this question all the time! The important point to remember is, we put the “not” in our name for ironic fun, because we were in a playful and passionate mood that fateful day when we chose our Team’s name. The name is Ironic, and a reference to the iconic painting by Magritte.

As of the moment I’m writing this, we’re about to hit our 600th couple — and thus, with 600 rabbis and officiants! From Orthodox and super reform — and everything in-between. We’ve even created a bunch of ketubot for Chassidic Lubavitch weddings!

We’re listed in on the main and traditional Ketubah websites, like Ketubah.com and Ketubah Gallery. We’re even featured on smaller, religious Jewish sites, such as Orthodox Ketubot.

We’re in one Judaica Store per major American city — like Gallery Judaica in Los Angeles, and Levine Judaica in New York. At lost those cities with major Jewish populations (sorry for all the Jews of Tuscaloosa!).

We’ve created Ketubot with all sorts of texts, from using the ancient Aramaic, to custom texts. We’ve worked with hundreds of rabbis to change and tweak the text to be perfect for them. Hundreds of rabbi-approved texts.

I guess the real test is, what happens when a couple gets a get to get divorced? Insofar as we know, none of our couples have gotten divorced yet (“knock on wood” — and yes, we know that phrase as Christian origins! But we still use it anyway to thank Fortune for our amazing luck!!!). We imagine that any rabbi who approved our text for a wedding would approve the same text for a divorce. But hopefully none of our couples ever get divorced!

That should be a unique selling proposition: with one of our ketubot, you’re less likely to get divorced! Maybe we’ll make that our next slogan! That would make me really want to use that Ketubah! Haha :)

Questions? Just ask!

Morgan
Team Ketubah

Hi everyone!

Although I’m writing this post from Argentina this week, of all places in the universe… guess where we’re from? The one, the only… Great Neck!

If you want to work with a Ketubah artist from Great Neck, we’re the only ones! Yes, I grew up in Great Neck, lived there until I was 18 and was shipped off to college.

Why do you think we are so obsessed with watching Princesses: Long Island (And still want to make a Ketubah for any of them if they get married?): because it’s our hometown!

We’d even love to do a Ketubah of Great Neck! The classic clock on Middle Neck Road; the train station; the Gatsby-esque houses in the North; the endless cars double-parked on Middle Neck Road. You want it? You got it!

Why do you think we’re specialists in Persian Ketubot? Because we’re from Great Neck, where everyone around us is Persian-Jewish! That’s how we got our start in Persian Ketubahs!

We still go back and visit Great Neck regularly — and stop by the Judaica stores on Middle Neck Road. We’d love to meet up and have a coffee!

-Morgan