Israel's Chief Rabbinate Council has approved groundbreaking regulations that for the first time set mandatory minimum and maximum amounts for the ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract signed at weddings.
The decision, passed at a council session on September 1, 2025, establishes that ketubah amounts must fall between 36,000 shekels (approximately $10,000) and 360,000 shekels (approximately $100,000). The move aims to end what officials describe as a widespread practice of writing fictitious sums that have undermined the ketubah's religious and legal authority.
The ketubah is a traditional Jewish document that obligates a husband to provide financial support to his wife and guarantees her a specified sum in case of divorce or widowhood. In recent decades, many grooms in Israel began signing ketubot listing inflated amounts (sometimes reaching millions of shekels) without any realistic ability or intention to pay such sums. These symbolic gestures, often made under social pressure or to impress guests, created serious complications in rabbinic courts during divorce proceedings.
The initiative came directly from Rabbi David Yosef, president of the Supreme Rabbinic Court and Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi (known by the title Rishon LeZion). He established a special committee of senior rabbinic judges to address the issue systematically. The committee included Rabbi Kalman Meir Bar, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi and president of the Chief Rabbinate Council; Rabbi Yaakov Shapira, who chairs the Marriage Committee; and several sitting judges from the Supreme Rabbinic Court.
The problem centered on the halakhic (Jewish legal) concept of "gemirat da'at" - whether a commitment made without genuine intent or ability to fulfill it constitutes a valid agreement under Jewish law. Rabbinic courts have struggled for years with whether such ketubot could be enforced when marriages dissolved.
The new regulations strike a balance: the minimum ensures women have meaningful financial protection, while the maximum prevents grooms from assuming astronomical debts they cannot realistically pay.
Rabbi Kalman Meir Bar explained the rationale: "A situation developed where grooms committed to imaginary sums in the ketubah, with no intention or ability to fulfill them from the outset, thereby damaging the very halakhic meaning of the document. At the same time, we cannot leave this completely open without any defined minimum, since the ketubah is meant to provide real financial security for the woman. Setting a lower and upper limit is designed to restore the ketubah to its proper place, a halachic document with meaning, not an empty declaration of intent."
