What became of the Jewish custom of mohar מֹהַר (“bridewealth”, “dowry”) in modern-day Judaism? Our rabbi told me he doesn’t think the custom was ever officially discontinued, but that as far as he knows, different living schools of Judaism and Jewish communities interpret and carry on the tradition of mohar in very different ways, based on the socioeconomic and material circumstances of their livelihoods, and, to a lesser extent, the marriage customs of the surrounding non-Jewish locals.
My family are American middle class suburban Ashkenazi Masorti (a.k.a. “Conservative”) Jews. When I married my wife, we signed a ketubah, which specified my obligations to provide for her, including after my own death. But I definitely did not present my wife, or her parents, with any cash or high-value goods as material collateral. I was never asked to do anything like this. I was never told that this is technically the done thing, or that I should offer it unasked. And there was definitely nothing in the ketubah specifying any brideprice to be paid.
I imagine the custom of mohar takes a very different form among, say, Karaite Jewish shepherds in Yemen.
What other sorts of traces or vestiges of this custom exist in the Jewish communities you’re familiar with, and what’s the rationale for this, as far as you know?
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Source: Reditt
