The kiddushin segment has now been concluded, and the ceremony continues with the seven blessings that are recited at the time of nisu’in. However, in order to create a break between the blessings recited on the kiddushin and those recited on the nisu’in, it is customary to read the marriage contract out loud at this point in the ceremony.

The officiating rabbi, or someone else who is invited to do so, reads out the marriage contract, a legal document that is written mostly in Aramaic. There are those who have the custom not to read the entire text but only certain passages from it. This depends on the officiating rabbi and the one charged with the reading of the text.

It was noted earlier that some have the custom for the witnesses to sign the marriage contract under the wedding canopy, and that would take place at this point, after the reading of its main text.

Those who follow this practice proceed as follows: First the groom performs an act of acquisition regarding the obligations laid out in the marriage contract (as detailed above), after which the witnesses sign the document.

Following the reading of the marriage contract, the document is given to the groom who hands it over to the bride and says to her:

“Here is your marriage contract.”

She takes the marriage contract from him and then hands it to someone in her family for safekeeping.