[Avodah] Sheqel Kesef

[Akiva Miller]

.
R' Danny Schoemann wrote (supporting my claim that coins must have been
around in Moshe Rabenu's time):

> If coins didn't exist when the Torah was given, and for many
> centuries thereafter, how do we explain the Halocho of Chilul
> Maaser Sheini?
> It needs a coin for Chilul. Even an Asimon (a blank coin)
> doesn't qualify.

R' Micha Berger responded:

> Is that specific requirement miSinai? Or is it a din
> derabbanan about how to be meqayeim the deOraisa? (Question
> isn't rhetorical.)

This is a fascinating Torah Temimah, on Devarim 14:25, number 61. Before I
go into what the Torah Temimah writes, I'd like to point out my personal
feeling that the phrase in that pasuk - "'v'tzarta hakesef b'yadcha - wrap
up the money/silver in your hand" - is a very unusual way to describe
monetary redemption. I always presumed that if the Torah is using such an
unusual term, then the insistence on kesef that has a tzura must be on the
d'Oraisa level. I may have been mistaken.

In the first paragraph, the Torah Temimah cites Rambam Hilchos Maaser Sheni
4:9, that the money must be a coin that has either a picture or writing.
This allowance for writing (even without a picture) leads me to suspect
that most gold bars would meet this criterion. (They would fail the "legal
tender" test nowadays, but might have been okay when the Machpela was
purchased.) Coins don't need to be circular, do they?

The second paragraph is more relevant to RMB's question. Torah Temimah
specifically mentions cases where maaser sheni "was redeemed, but was not
redeemed k'halacha, namely, that it was redeemed on an asimon."

This phrase - "redeemed but not redeemed k'halacha" - is startling to me.
Would we give any credence to "a shofar, but not a shofar k'halacha", or to
food that was "kosher, but not kosher k'halacha"? The only explanation I
can think of is that this maaser sheni, which was redeemed on an asimon, is
considered as redeemed on a d'Oraisa level, but a *not* redeemed on a
d'rabanan level. Further conjecture is above my level, and I invite the
chevra to discuss it.

Akiva Miller
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