Tosefet ketubah TB Ketubot 55

The fifth chapter of our massekhet begins on daf TB Ketubot 54b. It introduces the topic of tosefet ketubah (תוספת כתובה), the additional amount of money the groom adds to the base amount of the ketubah. “MISHNA: Although they said as a principle that a virgin collects two hundred dinars as payment for her marriage contract and that a widow collects one hundred dinars, if the husband wishes to add even an additional ten thousand dinars, he may add it.” (Sefaria.org translation) The basic amount of money of the ketubah was a significant sum to discourage frivolous divorces or to provide for the widow. Why with the groom want to add to that some of either 100 or 200 zuz? The Talmud Yerushalmi suggests a couple of answers. By adding more money to the bottom line of the ketubah, the groom looks like a better catch in the eyes of an important family. Alternately, this additional amount is a means to encourage the father-in-law to provide a larger dowry.

Once the groom stipulates additional money this money becomes indivisible of with the original 100 or 200 zuz. “Rabbi Aivu said that Rabbi Yannai said: The stipulation in the marriage contract as well as additional amounts he chooses to add to the contract are comparable to the marriage contract itself. (תְּנַאי כְּתוּבָּה כִּכְתוּבָּה דָּמֵי)” (Sefaria.org translation) Today’s daf TB Ketubot 55 provides 14 different practical differences of this principle.

“This principle produces a practical difference with regard to many issues. It is relevant to one who sells her marriage contract, indicating that such a sale includes the additional sum of the marriage contract; and to one who waives her marriage contract to her husband or his heirs, teaching that the additional sum is included in this relinquishing of rights to payment of the contract; and to a rebellious woman, from whom the court deducts a specific amount from her marriage contract each week until there is nothing left. These deductions come from the additional sum as well.

“And this principle also results in a practical difference to one who vitiates her marriage contract, as one who states that she received part of the payment for her marriage contract does not receive the remainder without taking an oath, and the additional sum is included in this halakha; to one who demands payment for her marriage contract, as the Sages ruled that from the time she begins to demand the payment she waives her right to further sustenance, and this applies with regard to one who demands the additional sum as well; and to one who violates the precepts of halakha or of Jewish custom, who may be divorced without receiving payment for her marriage contract, including the additional sum.

“It is also relevant to an increase in value, as she does not collect the main or additional sums from the increased value of the property in a case where the husband’s estate was not sufficient at the time of his death to pay the entire cost of her marriage contract but the heirs later increased the value of the property; to an oath, because if the wife is required to take an oath in order to receive her marriage contract, the additional sum is also included in that oath; and to the Sabbatical Year, as the marriage contract is not annulled with other debts in the Sabbatical Year, and this includes the additional sum as well.

“And with regard to one who writes a document transferring all of his property to his sons and leaves his wife a specific plot of land for her marriage contract, this teaches that she receives both the main and the additional sums of her contract only from that land. The aforementioned halakha also teaches that she collects the payment only from land, and specifically from land of inferior quality; and that a widow loses her ability to collect the main and additional sums as long as she is in her father’s home for more than twenty-five years after her husband’s death; and the principle also applies to the stipulation in the marriage contract that the male offspring inherit their mother’s dowry when her husband passes away in addition to the inheritance they receive together with their other brothers. These halakhot apply equally to the additional sum of the marriage contract.” (Sefsria.org translation)

At least in the United States, the tosefet ketubah is pro forma. Written in the ketubah the groom agrees to add another 100 or 200 zuz depending upon the original amount of the ketubah. I once attended a wedding in Israel when the rabbi asked the groom how much he money was adding as the tosefet ketubah. The groom responded with some sum. The Rabbi rejected this amount of money as too low and told the groom to offer a higher amount of money which he did!