Can an Artist Sign a Ketubah He/she Created?

Some Ketubah artists like signing their ketubot. It makes you feel good: you create a great work of art, and your name is there, permanently, in the corner, for them to see every day!

We don’t do that (although we offer optionally, certificates of authenticity).

Let me explain our thinking.

We’ve created more than 500 ketubot as of the moment I’m writing it, and worked with almost the same number of rabbis. And a large number of rabbis have told us that:

According to the Halacha, there should be no signature on the Ketubah, other than the official signatures (such as the witnesses) — because, if there is, it could theoretically create ambiguity over this other signature on the control.

This is similar to how, if two people sign a legal contract, if there are random other signatures on the legal contract, a judge could have doubts about the validity of the contract if there’s a dispute.

Although Rabbis debate these sorts of questions among themselves and, as the old joke goes, 2 Jews, 3 Opinions, this makes sense to us. Plus, it makes it easier for us considering our artists are mostly in Argentina!

In order to make it clear that every Ketubah is unique, we also offer all couples a Certificate of Authenticity along with their Ketubah.