Placement of the witnesses' signatures

Hi,

We are careful not to leave too much blank space between the body of the ketubah and the signatures of the witnesses below, lest someone cut off the ketubah and insert other text above the signatures of the witnesses.

We avoid having a space sufficient for two written lines and three interstices.

(Nachalat Shivah 2:1-3)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Dating a Ketubah on Rosh Chodesh

Hi,

A Ketubah written on the first day of the month should be dated באחד לחדש. On the thirtieth of the month, it should be dated [using Nisan as an example] as ביום שלשים לחדש ניסן שהוא ראש חדש אייר.

Technically, "Rosh Chodesh" does not appear in the Torah as a date, but it is an accepted colloquialism.

(Mordechai Gittin 454; Rama Even haEzer 126:4 and 126:6; Nachlat Shivah 6:2; Aruch haShulchan Even haEzer 126:22)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Listing days of the week in a ketubah

Hi,

When we put dates in a legal document, like a ketubah, we spell the day of the week using the numbers listed in Bereishit, and the spelling used there. For example, we write חמישי with two yuds.

In Bereishit, the first day of the week is called יום אחד, Day One, rather than יום ראשון, First Day. This is odd, given that the rest of the numbers are ordinal [שני, שלישי, רביעי, second, third, fourth] rather than cardinal [שנים, שלש, ארבע, two, three, four].

For a legal document we also use the cardinal number of יום אחד, because that's the Torah's language.

(Nachalat Shivah 5)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Margins

Hi,

Legal documents should not have large margins, lest this enable inappropriate additions to the document after the witnesses have signed. However, one might justify having margins which are large in order to protect the text when the document is handled.

(Nachlat Shivah 3:14)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

The end of the line

Hi,

One should be careful, when writing a legal document, to ensure that the last word of the line is not one which could have its meaning altered with the addition of a letter or two. For example, the word עשר ["ten"] should not conclude a line, lest someone make it עשרים ["twenty"].

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 42:4; Nachlat Shivah 3:3)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Writing a shtar [legal document]

Hi,

One should be careful in writing a ketubah, or any other legal document, to use a uniform font and uniform spacing. This ensures that any alteration of the text will be noticeable.

(Shulchan Aruch Choshen Mishpat 42:3; Nachlat Shivah 3:2)

Have a great day,
Mordechai