GEN155 As late as 1970, all American states except Nevada required that a divorcing couple justify their divorce as a response to adultery, insanity, imprisonment, or some other communally accepted reason for the couple to separate. In contrast, the covenantal nature of Jewish marriage had enabled couples to divorce simply for “irreconcilable differences” almost 2,000 years earlier.  Furthermore, the covenantal character of Jewish marriage enables the couple to create special conditions for their marriage, usually regarding the monetary arrangements between them, but sometimes also other matters. The only condition Jewish law forbids the couple to make with each other is to promise never to engage in conjugal relations, because the Rabbis construe sexual intercourse to be the defining characteristic that distinguishes marriage from other close relationships. After they have produced both the male and a female child to fulfill the Torah’s commandment, “Be fruitful and multiply” [this verse], they may mutually decide never to have sex again, but they may not put that decision into their marriage covenant. Nowadays, couples—especially those where one member brings much more money into the marriage than the other, or where there are children or property from a prior marriage—often create a prenuptial agreement that can be very specific about certain matters. This, however, is a relatively new phenomenon in Anglo-American law. Jewish law provided for such mutually agreed-upon conditions to a marriage from as early as the second century Mishnah as a manifestation of the covenantal character of Jewish marriage.  DORFFWITO 173-4