4. Hall - 6. view

Ketubah

Ketubah, Rovigo, 1758. The condition of the Jewish wedding according to religious law is reading out loud the ketubah, certified by 2 witnesses. The text of the ketubah is intact since the time of the Talmud. Only the names of the couple in question, the names of the fathers and the date has to be revived. The ketubah can be freely decorated. The hayday of the decorated parchment-ketubot among sephardi dates back to the early modern Italia, among sefard Jews. On the exhibited ketubah we can see the signs of the zodiac. While the zodiac, taken from ancient times, eastern beliefs, has been always used by the Jews since the ancient times, later the Mishna (oral teaching) banned it. Still we can spot them on many objects. In that time they are the sign of assimilation. The order of the zodiac follow the order of Hebrew writing: from right to left. The upper part of the ketubah represent the Paradise, in the middle we can see Adam and Eve beside the tree of knowledge.