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WE got married about a year ago and we have just noticed that there is
a mistake in my wife's name as it appears in our ketubah (marriage
document). What do we do?
THIS human error does happen from time to time, but make no mistake this is a serious legal issue and I'll explain why.
The
ketubah has two elements. One is that the woman is protected
financially through this document which obligates her husband or his
inheritors to provide for her.
The
second - and perhaps in your case an issue which is more important - is
that the Shulchan Aruch EH 66:1 rules that a couple without a ketubah
cannot live together. As the Talmud Ketubot 39:a teaches, a woman
cannot live with a man unless she has a document which secures her
financial arrangements.
If
the woman did not know that her ketubah had an error in it the general
approach as ruled by such greats as the Minchat Yitzchak 9:139 is to
allow the couple to live together despite the error.
Now,
although the ketubah is an important document, we are not as pedantic
about it as we are regarding, say, a get (a divorce document) where
every detail must be right.
Despite that, we do try to get the details down as accurately as possible.
The important thing for a document such as a ketubah is that it can stand to scrutiny in a bet din - a rabbinical court.
Rama
CM 49:2 rules that a taut demuchach - an obvious unintended - error
does not render the document invalid. Accordingly, Nitei Gavriel Nisuin
29:4 states that a mistake in the name such as the bride's name being
written with the word "ben", meaning the son of, instead of "bat", the
daughter of, is an obvious error and cannot invalidate the ketubah.
This is especially so since usually this error will appear only once in
the document whereby the other times when the name was written it was
done correctly.
Although
the Itur as brought by the Bet Yosef EH 126 and the Beit Shmuel EH
126:30 rule that even minor errors must be corrected, none other than
the Rosh (one of the most prominent early halachic authorities) in his
Responsum 68:32 rules that a ketubah with names which are erroneous is
still valid.
Although
it is clear that the ketubah is valid and that you are permitted to
live together, there are ways to correct errors in this document. This
can be done by contacting your officiating rabbi who can either correct
the original document or, if you so choose, a new document with a
slightly different wording can be drawn up.
The
column that offers everything you always wanted to know about Judaism
but were afraid to ask. Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz is minister of the
Yeshurun Hebrew Congregation, Gatley, Cheshire.
Follow Rabbi K on Twitter http://twitter.com/yeshurunhc and read his blog on www.yeshurun.org.uk
E-MAIL: askrabbi@jewishtelegraph.com
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