Jewish matrimonial jurisprudence (kiddouchin, ketouba)

Jewish matrimonial law rests on two fundamental institutions: the kiddouchin ("sanctification"), the act by which the man betroths the woman, and the ketouba, a written contract recording the husband's financial obligations toward his wife, notably in the event of death or divorce. Jewish marriage (nissouin) is traditionally concluded in two stages, érousine (betrothal) and nissouin proper, today celebrated together beneath the nuptial canopy (houppa). The ketouba, whose Aramaic formulations date back to antiquity, aims to protect the economic rights of the woman and constitutes one of the oldest legal protections of this kind. The dissolution of marriage requires an act of divorce, the guett, delivered by the husband, which raises the difficult question of the agouna, the "chained" woman whose husband refuses or is unable to grant the divorce. Codified in the Talmudic tractate Kiddouchin and in the Choulhan Aroukh, these norms remain at the heart of the activity of contemporary rabbinical courts.

Sources & resources

• Sefaria ↗
• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan