Teshuvah on Ketubbah Where Woman Acquires Man, by Rabbi Jonah Rank

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=14217

Date: 2016-08-06

Last Updated: 2025-03-24

Categories: Ketubot & other Shtarot (Documents)

Tags: acquisition, egalitarian, kinyan, traditional egalitarian, כתובה ketubbah

Excerpt: A teshuvah (responsum) on, and text of, a ketubbah whereby a groom acquires a bride, and a ketubbah whereby a bride acquires a groom. . . .

Content:

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This teshuva provides the proper wording of a traditional ketubbah and reference to the enactment of marriage by the wife’s purchasing of the husband. The text includes the “Lieberman clause,” wherein it is agreed upon that the force of the Rabbinical Assembly’s and the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Joint Bet Din is sufficient for the nullification of the engagement and marriage of a couple wherein one partner is preventing the other from undergoing desired divorce proceedings. While the wording declaring the purchase of the wife is familiar since mishnaic times, the purchase of the husband is rarely written and unknown on the Internet (until today).

 

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Contributor: Jonah Rank

Co-authors:

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  Name: Jonah Rank
  Bio: Rabbi Jonah Rank is President and Rosh Yeshivah of Hebrew Seminary: A Rabbinical School for the Deaf and Hearing. An award-winning Jewish songwriter, Rabbi Rank earned an MA in Jewish Thought and was ordained in 2015 at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Rabbi Rank has been involved in Jewish education for many years and served as the Maskil (“Teacher-of-Tradition”) at the Shaar Shalom Synagogue in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where his spouse, Rabbi Dr. Raysh Weiss, served as Senior Rabbi. While living in Canada, Rabbi Rank initiated the annual Halifax Communal Beit Midrash, and collaborated with the community’s Education Committee in rebooting the Halifax Joint Hebrew School. Following his family’s return to the U.S, he became the Director of the Shul School at Kehilat HaNahar in New Hope, Pennsylvania. While managing the supplementary school, Rabbi Rank co-led a Virtual Youth Arts Beit Midrash serving youth across five states, designed a virtual reality Purim carnival, and created curricular materials for young Jews to engage with Jewish notions of responsibility towards marginalized communities and to the planet. Rabbi Rank has authored several academic articles, served as the Managing Editor of Zeramim: An Online Journal of Applied Jewish Studies, and is currently editing Siddur Kanfey HaShekhinah, a forthcoming traditional Ashkenazi Hebrew prayer book, where the language referring to God is with feminine grammar. An advocate for civic causes, Rabbi Rank was appointed in 2021 to the Environmental Advisory Council in the Township of Lower Makefield, Pennsylvania. Rabbi Rank’s recently moved with his family to Natick, Massachusetts.
  Website: https://jonahrank.wordpress.com
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/jonah-rank

Featured Image:

Title: Ketubah from Nice, France, ca. 1690
Caption: Ketubah (Jewish wedding certificate) from Nice, France ca. 1690