The Symbols You'll Keep Seeing
Browse ketubah art for more than a few minutes and certain motifs appear again and again: pomegranates, doves, fish, lions, flowering trees, and sometimes — in older or more ornate pieces — the signs of the zodiac. These aren't random decorative choices. Each symbol carries specific meaning within Jewish tradition, and many have appeared in ketubah art for centuries.
Understanding what the traditional symbols mean can help you choose art that speaks to your relationship — or decide thoughtfully to depart from tradition in favor of something more personal. Either way, it's worth knowing what you're looking at before you fall in love with a design.
Pomegranate
The pomegranate (rimon) is one of the most common motifs in Jewish ritual art, and it appears on ketubahs more than almost anything else. Its primary association is abundance and righteousness: the pomegranate is said to contain 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 commandments in Jewish tradition. More broadly, it represents fertility, prosperity, and sweetness — all auspicious things to invoke at the start of a marriage.
The pomegranate also appears in the Song of Songs as a symbol of love and beauty, which makes it particularly fitting for a marriage document. When you see it used in pairs or clusters in ketubah art, that framing typically emphasizes shared abundance and mutual flourishing.
Dove
The dove (yonah) carries layered meaning. The most familiar is peace — the dove with an olive branch returning to Noah's ark is one of the most recognized images in the Hebrew Bible. But in the context of a ketubah, the dove's association with the Song of Songs is equally important: "My dove, my perfect one, is but one" is one of the most frequently cited images in ketubah poetry.
A pair of doves — facing each other or in flight together — symbolizes the couple, faithfulness, and the hope for a peaceful and harmonious home. It's one of the oldest motifs in ketubah art, appearing in Italian ketubahs from the 17th century onward and remaining continuously popular because the visual metaphor is so direct.
Fish
Fish (dag) appear in ketubah art as symbols of abundance, fertility, and blessing. In Hebrew, the numerical value of the word for fish is associated with the word for "multiply," reinforcing the fertility symbolism. Fish also hold a secondary protective meaning: because they live beneath the water, they're traditionally considered shielded from the evil eye — a concern that appears in many forms across Jewish folk practice.
Two fish facing opposite directions — a mirror-image composition — is a common configuration in ketubahs, representing balance and the duality within the couple. You'll see this particularly in Sephardic and Middle Eastern ketubah traditions.
Lions
Lions in Jewish art represent the tribe of Judah and, by extension, strength, royalty, and courage. The lion of Judah is one of the oldest symbols in Jewish tradition, associated with the lineage of King David and the hope that descends from it.
In ketubah art, lions are often shown rearing up on either side of a central motif — a Torah scroll, a crown, or an architectural arch. This configuration mirrors ancient illuminated texts and gives the ketubah a heraldic, formal quality. If you value a sense of Jewish continuity and historical weight, the lion motif carries that meaning directly.
Tree
The Tree of Life (etz chaim) is a central image in Jewish mysticism and appears throughout religious art. In the context of ketubahs, trees represent rootedness, growth, shelter, and the connection of generations. Two trees whose branches and roots intertwine is a visual metaphor for two families or two lives growing together — one of the most adaptable images in the tradition.
Trees in contemporary ketubah art are often among the most personalized: a couple might choose an olive tree for its Mediterranean resonance, a cherry blossom to honor a heritage, or simply the tree from a place that matters to their relationship. The etz chaim carries deep traditional meaning and also leaves room for individual interpretation.
Zodiac and Stars
If you look at historical ketubahs from medieval Italy or Persia, you'll sometimes find the twelve signs of the zodiac incorporated into the artwork — a detail that surprises many people encountering it for the first time. Jewish mystical tradition has a complicated but real engagement with astrology and celestial cycles. The Hebrew calendar is itself a lunar-solar system deeply attentive to astronomical time, and star imagery has appeared in Jewish art across virtually every region where Jews have lived.
In ketubah art, stars, moons, and sun motifs often represent divine blessing, the cosmic significance of the wedding day, and the hope that the union will be written in the heavens. Contemporary couples sometimes incorporate their own astrological signs or the constellation visible on their wedding night as a personalized detail within an otherwise traditional design.
Choosing What Speaks to You
The traditional motifs persist because they carry real accumulated meaning — centuries of couples choosing the same symbols for the same document gives them a weight that newer imagery doesn't yet have. But ketubah art has always also been personal: the most beautiful historic ketubahs incorporated architectural details specific to the city, florals native to the region, and imagery meaningful to the couple's community.
When you're choosing artwork, consider what each symbol means to you as much as what it means in tradition. A couple who met hiking might want the tree motif for reasons that have nothing to do with etz chaim — and that's not a conflict. The pomegranate's richness can be appreciated without counting commandments.
You don't have to choose traditional motifs at all. Many contemporary ketubah artists work in abstract forms, geometric patterns, or entirely custom imagery that reflects the couple's own story. What matters is that the artwork on a document you'll display for decades feels genuinely like yours — and knowing what the traditional symbols mean helps you make that choice with your eyes open.