[Avodah] woman reading a ketuba

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R"n Shoshana Boublil wrote:
> Rav Yaakov Ariel recommends that the Ketuba only be given
> to a rabbi qualified to pasken on the Ketuba. ... This is
> especially important nowadays, when many couples bring
> their own "hand made", decorated Ketuba - not realizing
> that there may be a problem of Nusach.

I'd like to mention a great example of this, which occurred at my daughter's wedding this past summer. Their kesuba was hand-written. At one point the calligrapher began writing the chasan's name, and after two letters left a blank space and began the name again from the beginning.

In the days prior to the wedding, no one noticed this orphaned two-letter word in the middle of the kesubah. But finally, at the chupah itself, it did get noticed by the one who was reading it aloud, my rav and our listmember, Rav Elazar Teitz. He noticed it immediately, decided that it was NOT a problem, and read it aloud together with the rest of the kesuba. No one listening noticed anything odd. Even now when I watched the video, he paused only to catch his breath, no differently than at several other points.

Why was this extra two-letter word not a problem? Because the chasan's name was Mordechai Shmuel. So Rav Teitz merely read aloud exactly what was written: "...v'kanina min Mar Mordechai Shmuel..."

Standard? Certainly not. But pasul? Even more certainly not.

Akiva Miller

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