Ready? Get Set! Go! In just three short days Passover will be in full swing, and we’re not ashamed to get caught up in Passover and all of its cheer (read: gimmicks). But even beyond all the jokes that can be made about the suffering of the Jewish people during these eight days — I mean Matzah isn’t exactly the world’s favorite food — there is something about the mixing of tradition and modern design that made these two finds really neat!

Team Ketubah couldn’t wait to share these novelties in the spirit of Passover. They may not use the bold colors and modern designs our Ketubot are known for, but they’re hilarious all the same! First, the ever-classy and very temporal case for iPhone. After a week it kind of loses it’s fun, but at least it gives you an excuse to play with your phone at the Seder Table!

Personal experience shows that playing with phones near Matzah could seriously damage the life of your electronics– Matzah crumbs can be worse than sand!! Speaking of the beach, these Matzah-inspired boxer shorts also win some serious points for the mix of modern-and-traditional. Could our ancestors ever have anticipated that the pride of their Seder tables would one day grace young men’s undergarments? We guess not.

The jury is out on whether they are making a ladies’ line as well, but something tells us that these matzah-trousers aren’t super-comfortable. And everyone knows that when you’re spending a few hours at a family gathering, comfortable is the way to go. Whether there are lots of Jews at your seder or your interfaith Passover is one for the ages, these Matzah Boxers just might be the way to go. Plus, you’ll need the elastic in the waistband to make sure you’re happy ass a kosher clam while chowing down on all the Matzah Ball Soup, Gefilte Fish, and Brisket you can muster!

Hag Sameach and Happy Passover from Team Ketubah!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

Passover is coming, and soon! While there may not be any grand Passover wedding traditions, there is one incredible thing about Passover: The food! It isn’t just the meal itself, it’s the whole package: the family, the friends, and all the steps of the seder that never seems to end! From the delicious smells of the kitchen to that crispy crunch of Matzah, who couldn’t resist a warm Matzah Ball in rich chicken broth?

All of this sounds great, but what if you don’t live at home, or you don’t know where to start? You’re not the only one whose mother seems to know all the Passover secrets, but didn’t quite pass them on! Luckily,The Shiksa in the Kitchen comes to the rescue! Another great find from Pinterest!

Wondering how to make the perfect Matzah based dish but have no clue where to start once the box is open? Wondering how to make a modern Passover desert without a spec of flour? The Shiksah adds color and great taste to all sorts of designs, and she’s all about embracing the Jewish Tradition! We love it!

Which got us thinking: all sorts of folks who weren’t born or raised Jewish get into the wealth of beautiful traditions passed down over centuries, and we say: Joint the Fun! Whether you’re marrying into the faith and are looking for the perfect Interfaith Ketubah or are thinking of commissioning a Christian Ketubah to highlight the beauty of your union, Team Ketubah is here to help!

Over the next few days, we’ll be featuring all sorts of Passover food for anyone to enjoy! Keep an eye out :)

Jacob
Team Ketubah

It shouldn’t be too surprising: apparently, some Jews are now starting to use Jewish prenuptial contracts, to resolve the Agunah questions. At least according to this article in the New York Times.

It’s an interesting situation: the traditional Ketubah lets the man decide if they will get divorced, or not. Less traditional Jews use the Lieberman Clause in their Ketubah to get around this. But, if we want to abide by the traditions and keep the original Ketubah contract intact, what are we to do?

My general approach — and I can speak only for myself — is, I can’t control what anyone else does, and I just hope that everyone is honest with themselves about their own motives for their decision-making.

In other words: if you want to keep traditions, that’s cool — but if we’re going to keep the tradition, then lets keep the tradition! And it is fine if you want to break tradition, that’s fine — but lets admit that we’re breaking it! The problem is if pretend we’re doing one thing, when we’re really doing something else.

This opinion is not that of Team Ketubah, just that of one member, Morgan. I feel like this should be like one of those TV commercials for pharmaceutical drugs with 30 seconds of warnings afterwards!

-morgan

The community on Pinterest has shown Team Ketubah some incredible inspiration of design, color, and tradition. We’ve also found some hidden treasures of Jewish Weddings from the distant and recent path both far and near.

The latest great find? A Ketubah from a traditional Jewish wedding in Bombay from 1911. Stored in the archives of the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library of Yale University, this Ketubah has been beautifully preserved and called on many modern themes of its day: was the slanted writing an intentional move by the artist, or just a quirk of hand-made art?

Source: beinecke.library.yale.edu

The piece may have faded over the years (it recently celebrated its 100th wedding anniversary, literally!), but here at Ketubah HQ we got really excited about how the bold colors of the freshly painted Ketubah must have lit up the room, and brought pure joy to the ceremony.

The Jews of Bombay have among the most interest stories! Believed to be a mix of transient Iranian Jews and those said have arrived on shipwrecked trading vessels from Portugal in the 1500s, and created thriving Jewish culture until the early 1900s. Today, most Indian Jews have emigrated to the United States or made Alyiah to Israel, but this Ketubah from the Old Country still gives us shivers!

We’re excited to re-pin this incredible find, and keep the creativity flowing! Whether your wedding will be a traditional ceremony with a Conservative text or a think-outside-the-box Interfaith Ketubah, Team Ketubah is here to help! Have an awesome image on Pinterest and want to keep us updated? We’re excited to re-pin it and share the excitement!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

One common request we get is: “You guys are awesome! We’d love a Ketubah with our photo in it — can you do that?”.

Answering that question is not as easy as it sounds.

On the one hand, we can definitely do it! Send us your photo, we can play with it and add some filters and — voila! — you have a Ketubah! We sit around all day obsessing over Ketubot and how to create amazing ones, and it is wonderful to have a photo as a starting point, plus to work in something so intimate and special into the final product. The couple gets something more personal; the we get another outlet for our creativity and our obsession with making our couples super happy!

But, ay, here’s the rub. Making it look good is much, much harder than you would think. You would think — “oh, apply some filters! and voila! there you go!” — and we tried that but it’s tough. Everyone has picky tastes and it just requires a lot of back-and-forth. And a filter alone isn’t enough; we want to a filter turned into a piece of art.

In other words, our initial thought was, this could be an alternative to a commissioned Ketubah, for a couple that wants something deeply personalized, but a fully commissioned Ketubah is out of their reach. But they have become so intensive that we’re now coming up with a new strategy for the Photo Ketubah.

So, the obvious question is: Guys, Team Ketubah, what is your new strategy for the Photo Ketubah?

Well, great question! The answer is…. just hold your horses. We’re working on something cool and completely different than what we’ve done so far — but still taking our style, our mixture of the traditional and the modern — and creating a Ketubah that we think some of you will love. At least we will. It’s worth the wait.

Team Ketubah is on Pinterest! We’re super-excited to share some great news: This Is Not a Ketubah is now sharing on Pinterest, and we couldn’t be more excited!

If you haven’t yet caught on, Pinterest is a neat mix of Twitter and Facebook that lets you share awesome visuals with your friends. See an incredible picture? You can just share it with a click! And if you’re planning your wedding, you know getting feedback from your friends is critical. Awesome!

The neatest thing about Pinterest for Team Ketubah is the incredible blending of tradition and modern. As Brides (and a few Grooms!) plan all the little details of the big day, we love the fact that tradition hasn’t gotten lost! From bold colors and modern designs to simple and classic ideas, the diversity of ideas is absolutely incredible, and we can’t get enough!

Planning an Interfaith wedding or looking for some funky ideas to mix the old with the new at your wedding? With users from all sorts of backgrounds, the great community over at Pinterest isn’t just going to make sure you have all sorts of ideas to choose from, but you can browse through lots of neat concepts at just a click!

Feeling inspired? Head over to get started, and get pinning! Come see
Team Ketubah on Pinterest!!

Some couples love a Ketubah with the seven species of Israel. Some love Ketubot in Chagall’s style. Some love Ketubahs that look like a ’60s rock concert poster — true story that! We can never guess what art or feeling or aesthetic inspires a couple to want to memorialize their love and wedding moment in their Ketubah.

But we think that a lot of couples are going to love a new Ketubah we’re now working on: a Beach Ketubah. The beach, the sunshine, the palm trees — it is the perfect scene for a wedding, and a wonderful moment to put onto your Ketubah.

Even though it’s not ready yet — soon! soon! hold yer horses! — we’re already really excited about it. We think it will quickly become one of our most beloved Ketubot, right next to the Picasso-ish II and our Rothko-ish I.

But it will be worth the wait.

There are a few reasons why we expect this Ketubah to be a smash hit. They include:

• Beach weddings are more and more popular. A century ago, no one ever got married on a beach. Now — well, my own cousin (I am Morgan, one of the founders of our little team) got married last year on a beach in Miami. Both my cousin and his new wife are Jewish; and unfortunately we didn’t give them a Ketubah because we had not yet started This Is Not a Ketubah! Some of my cousins had interfaith weddings — but some of them, like Matt, had Jewish-only weddings!
• The Beach is so beautiful, that it is the perfect moment to put on a Ketubah. The setting sun, the palm trees rising high, the waves crashing. Just imagine it in your mind now: don’t you want to be there?
• Wedding aside, the Beach brings everyone amazing memories: it inspires relaxation, lazy days, good feelings, great weather, blue skies.

So — expect our Beach Ketubah soon! And, in the meantime, if you think you might be interested in it, or if you have any ideas or suggestions for it, just drop us a line at team@tinak.org and we’ll try to incorporate your suggestions!

Morgan
Team Ketubah

We’ve been getting some great ideas for Ketubot from our Facebook page, and quite a few incredible pictures from our Ketubah Couples themselves! In fact, other the weekend we got a great question from a Ketubah Facebook fan, so we wanted to give it some love on our Blog. It’s a great idea, and an awesome opportunity to explain all about Ketubot!

Here’s the question:
Would someone please explain what a ketubah actually is and how it is worn in a wedding?

(you can also check out the image here!)

First, the heart of the matter. What exactly is a Ketubah? A Ketubah is a centuries old traditional Jewish marriage contract signed on wedding day. While the most Orthodox and days-of-yore style Ketubot include a list of obligations between husband and wife in rather material ways, modern Ketubot are all about inclusion, emotion, and commitment between Bride and Groom. The modern progressive and interfaith wedding should have a modern Ketubah, for all sorts of couples

This Is Not a Ketubah creates all sorts of bold, colorful designs we hope our couples will absolutely love!

Now, on to our favorite (and most inspired) part of the question: How is it worn?

Strictly speaking a Ketubah is printed on a number of mediums, from our own Premium Endura Paper, Canvas Ketubahs, or other flat paper-like mediums. Many couples display them at their wedding after framing and mounting them on an easel, so all of their guests can see the vows they have promised to each other!

We haven’t yet seen a Bride or Groom who chose to make their Ketubah into clothing– most have stuck with the traditional Tux and Wedding Dress combination, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t creative enough to take on the challenge!

Looking for a Ketubah you can wear? We’d love to hear more about your grand plans, and we’d be absolutely thrilled to be part of them!!

Jacob
Team Ketubah

Do you remember the last time you went to the Post Office? Or when you weren’t in a frantic rush to get out of there as soon as possible? Or dreaded every minute of it? Neither can we!

Before you go hating on one of the United States’ oldest institutions, you might not realize that there’s a beautiful bright spot in this most-under-appreciated-government-agency that just might bring you back to your childhood. Whether you collected stamps or your uncle Max had a collection that took up the entire house, it’s easy to forget that there are thousands of designs by all sorts of artists, featuring famous folks, places, and festivals!

It turns out that USPS is actually quite the inspiration for couples looking for an exciting, bold, and anything-but-conventional Ketubot! The idea hit us: what if we created a Ketubah inspired by none other than USPS postage stamps! Sound absurd? Not at all! In fact, we got this great idea from the brilliant idea-mill over at BrokeAss Bride!

She featured this beautiful set of stamps, that your neighborhood postal store should have on hand (or can order within about a week!). Whether your fancy is Kings & Queens, flowers, or even the far reaches of space, there is probably a stamp for that! And if you’re the type of couple that already has your invitations taken care of, the inspiration for your colorful and custom Ketubah isn’t too far away!

Our team of Artists will expertly take your creative invitations (and even the stamps) to create an awesome Ketubah, with all of the right touches! From capturing the joy of your wedding day to the delicate beauty of your postage stamps, we find design inspiration everywhere we look. Whether starting from scratch or building on a design you love, we’re ready to work with you and your fiance(e) on something absolutely unique and gorgeous!!

Who says the Post Office has to be boring? It just might be the spark of creativity your wedding’s been looking for!

Jacob
Team Ketubah