[Avodah] T'uM

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Zev Sero 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 ... 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.

R' Richard Wolpoe asked:
> But I have questioned whether $10.00 of our paper money as
> really being worth more than the $5.00 Hallah. ... 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?

I see a VERY big difference between what RZS wrote, and what RRW wrote. RZS asks, "Is it *money* for this halacha? Is it *money* for that halacha?" RRW asks, "What is this *worth*? What is that *worth*?"

Things are worth whatever people feel they are worth. There are some situations which call for an expert to appraise an object, but no one would do that for a $10 bill. A $10 bill might or might not be "money" for a halacha which requires money -- Pidyon Maaser Sheni, for example -- but it is certainly not valueless.

Akiva Miller

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