Both Uses

dowry
in
The Color of Water
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Kosher My parents' marriage was put together by a rov, a rabbi of a high order who goes to each of the parents and sees about the dowry and arranges the marriage contract properly according to Jewish law, which meant love had nothing to do with it.†
Chpt 3 *
He left behind no insurance policy, no dowry, no land, no money for his pregnant wife and young children, but he helped establish the groundwork for Ma's raising twelve children which lasted thirty years-kids not allowed out after five o'clock; stay in school, don't ever follow the crowd, and follow Jesus-and as luck, or Jesus, would have it, my stepfather helped Mommy enforce those same rules when he married her.†
Chpt 24

Definitions:

(1) (dowry)
in some societies, money or property given by a woman's family to the husband at marriage

or less formally: money or property a bride brings to a marriage
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
More rarely, in some societies, a dowry may be given by a husband to his new wife. It can also refer to money paid upon entry to a monastic order.