Telephone conference #4 "Is Your Kesubo (Marriage) Kosher?"

Shiur 4 telephone conference – Is Your Kesubo (Marriage) Kosher?

9:30 Wednesday night April 22 -   call 605-562-3130 insert code 411161#

Why are there problems in writing a Kesubo? See Igeres Moshe Even Hoezer I:178, a problem with kesubose that do not have the family name of the husband and wife. That is one of the many problems. The other ones did not effect Reb Moshe perhaps, but they are all problems. See below.

To explain, a kesubo requires two things: One that the husband pledge money if he divorces his wife or dies, this is the money of the kesubo. Two, that the wife should know that she will get her money when divorced or widowed. If the wife is guaranteed of getting her money and yet the wife is not sure she will get it, the gemora calls this Bias Zenuse, a marriage which is prostitution. (Kesubose 82b and see Tosfose there d”h HOSOM. See also Kesubose 56b). See Kesubose 82b that many women refused to ever marry because they were not secure in getting their Kesubo money.Ssee Shulchan Aruch EH 66:9 about a woman who thought she would not get a Kesubo but was wrong because she was getting a Kesubo. If she stays with her husband thinking she had no Kesubo, "her marriage is zenuse."

Today, there are problems with many kesubose. One, as Reb Moshe discusses, is the problem that many people in the large cities share the same name. There are many people named Reuven son of Moshe or Leah daughter of Shimon. If so, the Kesubo when presented to the husband can be refused. He can say he is not the Reuven ben Shimon mentioned in the document. Now, even if the Beth Din can clarify that he is the husband mentioned in the Kesubo, since the wife has a Kesubo that is not necessarily kosher, she has no trust in it. Therefore, it could be that the Kesubo is invalid and the marriage is not covered by a Kesubo.

Reb Moshe presents a solution to this to write the family name. But let us say that the husband is Reuven ben Shimon Gold. In all of New York City there is likely another person with that name. If so, the Kesubo is not a guarantee of payment and there is a problem.

Now we get to another problem. What do we do about the Kesubo that offers the woman 200 Zuz? Nobody knows exactly what a zuz is. Rambam tells us the equivalent in silver but silver like goats has different value in different times and different places. How can the woman be secure in her money when she has no idea how much it is?

Then we have a major problem with writing the correct names. Today people have two or more names. This leads to great differences of opinion among major authorities how to write the Kesubo. A Kesubo is harder to write than a GET, because a GET is simply a document to do a mitzvah. The Kesubo is a monetary document that  is strong enough to force the husband to pay. If the Kesubo doesn’t force the husband to pay there are problems.

 Even in earlier generations where every city had experts in writing a GET on their Beth Din, many of these Beth Dins produced divorces found by Gedolei Hador to be invalid. If in a GET there are arguments, what about a Kesubo? And we know that today many who write Kesubose do not know the laws of Names. A major Rosh Yeshiva once asked me where the laws of Names are in the Shulchan Aruch.

Then there is a problem about writing two hundred zuz when it should be one hundred. We will explain that in the class.

So what do we do?

Tune in Wed at 9:30 and get a kosher kesubo for yourself and others.

Shalom,

Dovid Eidensohn