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The mishna at the bottom of Ketubot 93b talks about paying ketubot when a man with several wives dies. (They're paid in order of marriage, which from context means order of kiddushin.) It then raises the case of marrying several women on the same day, and records that it was the practice in Jerusalem to add the hour and not just the date to the ketubah in that case (so a later court would be able to determine unambiguously the order of the wives).

From the Soncino translation:

[...] She also may not exact payment except on oath, if all [ketubahs] were issued on the same day then the woman [whose ketubah] preceded that of the other, even if only by one hour, gains [the first right]. And so it was the custom in Jerusalem to insert the hours [in such documents]. If all ketubahs were issued at the same hour and the estate is worth no more than a maneh [the women] receive equal shares.

If the mishna had just said that in that case we add the hours, then I would have assumed that this was a theoretical case. But it says it was the practice in Jerusalem. On 94b (h/t ray) the g'mara talks about writing the time in documents in general, but here the mishna seems to be specifically talking about doing so in ketubot.

Marrying more than one person on the same day seems unusual to me, but I am of course far removed from this time in our history. What circumstances would have led to this happening in mishnaic times?

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    See Isaiah 4:1.
    – Ypnypn
    May 7, 2015 at 21:06
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    Are you sure the Jerusalem custom wasn't about all bills of debt, not just those of marriage? (Haven't checked anything inside recently)
    – Double AA ♦
    May 7, 2015 at 21:08
  • @DoubleAA hmm, that's a good question. It looked like the mishna was talking specifically about ketubot, but maybe the g'mara expands on that farther down.
    – Monica Cellio
    May 7, 2015 at 21:09
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    @MonicaCellio I don't think you can deduce that marrying people on the same day wasn't theoretical from the custom of Jerusalem if they did that on all their documents on principle. So they did it on Ketubot too just like everything else.
    – Double AA ♦
    May 7, 2015 at 23:54
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    There is the story of a Cohen who married hundreds of women (some must have been on the same day) for them to eat t'ruma in a 'bad' year. Was it R Tarfon?
    – cham
    May 8, 2015 at 4:45

1 Answer 1

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in Ketuvos 94b there is a story there (regarding documents of gifts) where the date and time were written in those documents as standard practice.

This shows that this practice was not only for ketuvot. The mishna regarding marrying multiple women on the same day is talking about a theoretical case not necessarily that it was common practice.

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    The standard practice for all documents was to marry multiple wives? I think I know what you are trying to say, but this is confusing language. Can you edit to clarify what the story is and what it implies and how that addresses the question?
    – Double AA ♦
    May 7, 2015 at 21:23
  • The bottom of 94b says that in Jerusalem they write the hours into deeds of sale (not just ketubot), but I don't see anything there that challenges the mishna talking about ketubot. Yes they also write the dates into other documents, but the mishna is clearly talking about ketubot. And my question isn't about timestamps in documents per se; it's really about men marrying multiple women on the same day. When was that done (if ever)? Do we know?
    – Monica Cellio
    May 7, 2015 at 23:35
  • mishna also discusses marrying 3 year old girls and even less than this. does that mean it was common? it's just trying to teach you certain laws
    – ray
    May 8, 2015 at 5:34
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    @ray, as noted in the question, when the Mishna says "and so they would write times in Yerushalayim," in the context of ketubot, that sounds very much like it was an actual thing that they did to account for an actual practice in marriage, common enough to warrant such a response.
    – Isaac Moses ♦
    May 8, 2015 at 12:57
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    @MonicaCellio read it "because of this" i.e. these types of scenarios. could be the mishna wrote it here because you might think it was done only for common cases where this may be problematic such as business deals but not for kesuvos where this would be rare. as is the normal way of talmud, they teach the biggest chidush so you know the other cases too. you can see the talmud brought a story from other documents
    – ray
    May 8, 2015 at 14:13

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