Chief Rabbinate Sets Minimum, Maximum Thresholds for Religious Marriage Contract Amounts
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has established a minimum of 36,000 shekels and a maximum of 360,000 shekels for marriage contract amounts.
Jerusalem, 25 August, 2026 (TPS-IL) — The Chief Rabbinate of Israel approved a precedent-setting decision this week establishing a minimum and maximum threshold for the amount recorded in the ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract, in religious marriage ceremonies in Israel.
Under the decision, made at the council’s meeting Tuesday, ketubah compensation owed to the wife in the event of divorce will not be less than 36,000 shekels ($10,588) or exceed 360,000 shekels ($105,880).
Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi and President of the Great Rabbinical Court Rabbi David Yosef initiated the establishment of the committee that set the threshold, amid long-standing discussions within rabbinical courts regarding excessive ketubah amounts — cases in which grooms write unrealistically high sums they have no realistic ability to pay.