You are engaged and the wedding is only a month a way. You and your fiance are chatting about things and talk turns to the wedding. Your finace mentions how she wants her kesubah to have an amount of $1,000,000 (which is much more than the usual kesubah amount, though I don't know offhand how much it normally is). She says that because she loves you so much she wants to make sure that you stay together with her forever and symbolically this makes her feel like the relationship is really permanent.

How do you react?

What is the halachah when one contractually agrees to something which is obviously not possible and/or a joke?

I'd say she needs counseling because she has some trust issues.

My friend's father is a rabbi in an area where he is mesader kedushin for many non-frum couples. I remember once hearing from her that many of the guys try putting outragous amounts on the kesuba to "show their loyalty" or some other such reason. He doesn't allow it though.

Speak for yourself, man.

Ok, ok. Seriously, though I remember learning something about if you agree to a deal which is clearly not possible or serious (e.g. "if you make this shot I'll give you a million dollars - you obviously are not going to give your friend a million dollars) then it is not a valid deal.

It's funny that this is the exact opposite of a pre-nup.

She sounds like a nut.

But interestingly, the Kestenbaum Judaica auction house recently had a kesuba on the block that belonged to the wife of R. Yisroel of Ruzhin. Apparently it was a second kesuba. The first was fairly standard, written when he married her at age 13. But he rewrote it with a very high amount at a later date as a symbol of his esteem for her.

Have a look:

http://drop.io/ruzhinkesubah

Sefardim are noiheg to add excessively large amounts to their kesuvos....

Eight Cow Wife

One million dollars isn't an ourageously huge sum in the context of divorces/marriages; but I think that a truly obscene number can potentially invalidate the contract ...

This is more of an issue in Israel where halacha controls in matters of marriage and divorce. I remember at a friend's wedding 3 years ago, he brought a rabbi along as his representative to make sure he wouldn't be forced into signing off on a ridiculous sum. I have never heard of this happening here in the USA, where the ketubah is a symbolic document ignored by the courts.

Why is it obviously not possible? Millionaires are a dime a dozen these days.


ETA: I see PM and SG made the point already.

To be technical, they are more like $12,000,000 a dozen.

Which courts? Jewish batei dinim take them very seriously.

I'd think it's weird that a girl would be thinking about divorce terms right before the wedding.

I used the term deliberately. Their millions are like dimes compared to the real fortune-500 fellows.