<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 7:12 PM, Zev Sero <<a href="mailto:zev@sero.name">zev@sero.name</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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Take another example: fiat money. All of our money today, notes as<br>
well as coins, gets its value only from the fact that the law says it<br>
has value, and we all agree to pretend that it does. There is a<br>
discussion in halacha (I recall seeing a teshuva on this from the<br>
Chasam Sofer) over whether such money can be used for kiddushin,<br>
pidyon haben, chilul maaser sheni, etc., and various distinctions<br>
that can be drawn between these different purposes. But let's take<br>
the most machmir opinion, and say that fiat money is completely<br>
worthless al pi halacha, chaspa be'alma; even that opinion would<br>
agree that it's valid for paying debts, that if Avi had paid M&B<br>
with the local currency he would no longer owe them anything, even<br>
if they demanded payment in silver, and even if the next day the<br>
currency collapsed into worthlessness. Because those are the terms<br>
on which people do business, unless they explicitly specify otherwise.<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
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-- <br>
Zev Sero </div></blockquote></div><br>Tangentially, this has implications for Hilchos Muktzeh on Shabbos<br>E.G. if I have a bossis for muktzeh and non-muktzeh <br><ol><li>The non-muktzeh is a $5.00 Hallah</li>
<li>The Muktzeh is a $10.00 Gold coin<br></li></ol>Then the halacha is a no-brainer, i.e. the money is the ikkar and the bossis is muktzehbecause the non-muktzeh is bottel..<br><br>But I have questioned whether $10.00 of our paper money as really being worth more than the $5.00 Hallah. <br>
<br>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. <br clear="all"><br>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?<br>
<br>-- <br>Kol Tuv / Best Regards,<br>RabbiRichWolpoe@Gmail.com<br>see: <a href="http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/">http://nishmablog.blogspot.com/</a>