[Avodah] Sheqel Kesef

[Akiva Miller]

R' Micha Berger brought interesting arguments to show that Machtzis
Hasheqel must have been a coin. I'd like to cite another mitzvah d'Oraisa
which can't be understood unless money coins existed in Moshe Rabenu's day.
Namely: Pidyon Maaser Sheni.

For example, Devarim 14:26 says "You shall put the kesef into whatever your
soul desires." This kesef can't possibly refer to the metal silver. It has
to be translated as "money", because one is allowed to use *copper* coins
for this. (See, for example, Torah Temimah Devarim 14 note 67.)

At first, I was focusing on the previous pasuk, where the word "v'tzarta"
is understood to be teaching us that the thing used for pidyon has to have
a "tzura" on it. But then I saw RMB's suggestion that "the Avraham coin (BQ
97b) ... could have been more a medallion than a coin." Would such a
medallion (which *does* have tzura) be valid for Pidyon Masser Sheni? No,
it would not. Besides having a tzura, it also has to be legal tender. No
matter how valuable that medallion might be for bartering, check out Torah
Temimah Devarim 14 note 68, and you'll get a new appreciation for the term
"legal tender".

All this proves to my satisfaction that something meaning "coin" did exist
in Moshe Rabenu's day. (These coins didn't have to be round, but they did
need to be imprinted with a tzura, and to be spendable at all local
merchants.) But it doesn't help regarding the sale of the Machpelah a few
centuries earlier. Were those 400 sheqalim weighed or counted? Still
looking...

Akiva Miller
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