[Avodah] T'uM

[Richard Wolpoe]

On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 7:12 PM, Zev Sero <zev at sero.name> wrote:

>
> Take another example: fiat money.  All of our money today, notes as
> well as coins, gets its value only from the fact that the law says it
> has value, and we all agree to pretend that it does.  There is a
> discussion in halacha (I recall seeing a teshuva on this from the
> Chasam Sofer) over whether such money can be used for kiddushin,
> pidyon haben, chilul maaser sheni, etc., and various distinctions
> that can be drawn between these different purposes.  But let's take
> the most machmir opinion, and say that fiat money is completely
> worthless al pi halacha, chaspa be'alma; even that opinion would
> agree that it's valid for paying debts, that if Avi had paid M&B
> with the local currency he would no longer owe them anything, even
> if they demanded payment in silver, and even if the next day the
> currency collapsed into worthlessness.  Because those are the terms
> on which people do business, unless they explicitly specify otherwise.
>
>
> --
> Zev Sero
>

Tangentially, this has implications for Hilchos Muktzeh on Shabbos
E.G. if I have a bossis for muktzeh and non-muktzeh

   1. The non-muktzeh is a $5.00 Hallah
   2. The Muktzeh is a  $10.00 Gold coin

Then the halacha is a no-brainer, i.e. the money is the ikkar and the bossis
is muktzehbecause the non-muktzeh is bottel..

But I have questioned whether $10.00 of our paper money as really being
worth more than the $5.00 Hallah.

Think of a check book. The printed value of balnak checks might be only
about $4.00, but you can USE it to create checks worth thousands of dollars.


Paper Money is like pre-written checks. It has no intrinsice value, other
than the paper and the artwork, etc.  This throws a big winkle -as I see it
- in the laws of bossis.  Is a $10.00 bill worth really worth $10.00 or it
is just like a $10.00 check?  is it intrinscially worth more than a Hallah
at half the face value?

-- 
Kol Tuv / Best Regards,
RabbiRichWolpoe at Gmail.com
see: http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/
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