A normal ketubbah (“writ”) is a pre-nuptual contract that specifies many of a groom’s obligations to his bride in the event of divorce or the death of the husband. But this “ketubbah” has another purpose: it commemorates the “wedding” of God and the Children of Israel at Mt. Sinai on the occasion of the revelation of the Law on the holiday of Shavuot. Indeed, it was a custom among European Sephardim and some Jewish communities in Islamic lands to read such symbolic marriage contracts on the first day of the holiday. 

The Shavuot ketubbah was publicly chanted in the synagogue to a special melody. The text closely follows the wording of the standard rabbinical marriage contract but sets the wedding at Mount Sinai on the 6th of Sivan (Shavuot), with Moses and Aaron as witnesses. The decorative program of this document is quite similar to that of ketubbot from Tetuan, Morocco, of this period.