Traditional Spelling of Cambridge (MA) for ketubah?

Home › Forums › Bais Medrash › Traditional Spelling of Cambridge (MA) for ketubah?

Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • September 1, 2009 6:53 am at 6:53 am #590304
    ronrsr
    Member

    does anyone know the traditional spelling of Cambridge (Mass.). Our local rabbi says it isn’t spelled simply phonetically, but there is a traditional spelling, yet I can’t find that anywhere.

    Wedding is this Sunday, need to send Ketubah to the printers by Wednesday or so.

    thanks u’bracha,

    -rsr-

    September 2, 2009 3:39 am at 3:39 am #659004
    Joseph
    Participant

    If your Rabbi specifically knows that it is not spelled a certain way, presumably he knows how it is spelled. Have you asked him?

    September 2, 2009 12:54 pm at 12:54 pm #659005
    A600KiloBear
    Participant

    BS”D

    Is there a rov who has written a kesuba there beforehand? He would be the best person to ask.

    Otherwise, contact a Chabad shaliach and see if he can find out whether the Rebbe ZYA addressed a letter to someone in Cambridge and if so, how it was spelled in the letter. I’m blanking out on how to check or I would offer to do it for you. Then again, that would be a Yiddish based spelling and I am not sure if that would necessarily be correct for a kesuba either.

    September 2, 2009 1:06 pm at 1:06 pm #659006
    abx
    Participant

    Maybe ask the Mesader Kiddushin, if he’s from MA.

    September 11, 2009 6:23 am at 6:23 am #659007
    ronrsr
    Member

    Thanks for all the advice and help.

    My local rabbi didn’t know, he’s not from Cambridge. He did know enough to tell me that it was not a simply transliterated spelling.

    I called a rabbi who works in Cambridge, and got an answer, but it just didn’t look right. There seemed to be an extra vav between the dalet and the shin.

    Eventually called the Bet-Din in Boston, figuring they know how to spell it, since they put it on so many documents and gittin.

    Kuf – Ayin – Mem – Bet – Raish – Yod – Daled – Shin does the trick – it is the traditional spelling, not precisely transliterated.

    I was typesetting my own ketubah, so no one had read it beforehand.

    Anyway, it worked – the wedding came off without a . . . er, rather, with a hitch.

    shalom u’vracha,

    -rsr-

    September 15, 2009 5:39 am at 5:39 am #659009
    ronrsr
    Member

    Postscript: The ketubah came out absolutely lovely, even w/o ornamentation or adornment. The type itself was gorgeous, and many people commented on how lovely it was.

    Just wait until the artist is done adorning it.

    Thanks again for all your help and advice.

    September 15, 2009 12:05 pm at 12:05 pm #659010
    onlyemes
    Member

    In general, due to the fact that even transliteration can be spelled many different ways, it would be best if the site was spelled out in the native language also. Kesuvos are written in aramaic, which was once the native language. Writing it in Hebrew AND in English would remove any doubts. Recall just a few weeks ago when one of the gedolim suggested a non-traditional spelling for Lakewood.

    September 17, 2009 5:41 pm at 5:41 pm #659011
    Pashuteh Yid
    Member

    Are you allowed to just write the city of MIT and Harvard, instead? Look, you may need a bigger kesuva to fit in the words Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but it may get you a good job later on.

    September 17, 2009 6:40 pm at 6:40 pm #659012
    ronrsr
    Member

    I could have put anything I wanted. I was typesetting it myself.

    we thought of putting in the rivers, etc., but I (and the Mesader) were satisfied that the chief judge of the Bet Din would know the correct spelling of the second largest city in his district. The spelling of Massachusetts I took right off the Bet Din’s letterhead. If anyone’s interested or has googled this to find the spelling, it’s ???????? ???????????. If your computer is not set up for hebrew, that’s Mem-Alef-Samech-Alef-Tet-Shin-Vav-Samech-Ayin-Tet-Samech.

    The name of Cambridge and Massachusetts also appears in English in the Brit Ketubah to the right of the Hebrew, so there is no doubt about the locale. How about the latitude and longitude? Has anyone tried that?

    If this ketubah is not kosher, it is not due to misidentifying the location.

    To end the story: We got the ketubah back from the printers, and it came out looking just stunningly lovely.

    I knew what every word meant, and what I was agreeing to, since I had been over them so many times, and had improved the English translation. My bride appreciated the great effort I put into making the ketubah, since I forced her to see every draft, every day for ten days. My wife loves her ketubah.

    I’m not even sure I want to have an artist adorn it now, since the text and typography itself is a work of art.

  • Author
    Posts
Viewing 9 posts - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.