We continue our study of Tractate Bava Metzia, chapter 4, Mishnah 6. The Mishnah deals with worn coins and the question of the measure of ona'ah (overcharging) that applies to them, and then moves on to discuss redeeming Ma'aser Sheni onto a worn coin.
The first question before us is: Until when is a person who received a defective coin - a coin that has lost more than a sixth of its weight, meaning there is a gap of more than a sixth between its intrinsic value in terms of silver content and its face value - permitted to return it and cancel the transaction? The answer depends on the location.
Until when the coin can be returned:
In a metropolis: In a large city, where money changers and financiers are found, the time limit is the amount of time needed to walk from the place where the money was changed and show it to someone who is an expert in the value of coins. If the expert tells him that the coin is defective, he may go back and exchange it. This is the parallel to the rule stated regarding regular merchandise - the time it takes to show it to a merchant or to his relative who is an expert in the matter.
In a village: In a rural settlement, where there are no financiers and money changers who know how to evaluate the coin's worth, it can be returned until the eve of Shabbat - meaning, all the days of the week and up until Friday afternoon.
Why the time limit was set until the eve of Shabbat:
According to the Bartenura: In a village, one will never find someone who is thoroughly expert in coins. The assumption is that there is no coin-based economy there, and people do not use their money frequently. On Friday, when a person goes out to buy his Shabbat needs, he attempts to use the coin he received; if they refuse to accept it, he understands that the coin is defective, and then he is able to return it. Thus, he has the entire week.
According to the Rambam: The money changers themselves arrive in the village on Friday, in order to provide the residents with the coins they need for changing money and buying their Shabbat needs. At that time, the buyer can show his coin to the money changer. This is, therefore, not merely discovering the defect through a test of outcome, but an actual examination by an expert.
After the time for returning has passed:
Once the allotted time has expired and the next week arrives, the buyer is no longer entitled to return the coin. He should have done so when the opportunity was in his hand, and now the window of opportunity has closed and he is left with the defective coin.
Nevertheless, the Mishnah states that as a measure of piety and going beyond the strict letter of the law - if the giver recognizes that the coin left his hand and knows that he was the one who gave the defective coin, even after twelve months, and even though there is no longer an obligation to return it here, it is proper for him to accept it back, since he gave a defective coin.
"Ve'ein lo alav ela taromes" - this expression means that all the injured party can do is complain and feel resentful toward his fellow for not acting with him beyond the strict letter of the law, and nothing more. He has no legal recourse: he cannot sue him in Beis Din and force him to accept the invalid coin back, since the blame rests on himself - he had plenty of time to check and return it, and he did not do so. This is the point of the Mishnah: beyond the strict letter of the law, it is indeed proper for the giver to accept the coin, but he is not coerced to do so, and at most there is resentment here.
In practical Halachah:
It is difficult to determine practical Halachah here, because our commercial world is completely different from the reality of those days. Nevertheless, the Rema distinguishes between two situations:
A coin that cannot be used at all: This is not a matter of going beyond the letter of the law, but rather the letter of the law itself. It is like someone who gave a token instead of a bill, and he must take it back, as he wronged his friend by giving a defective coin.
A coin that is difficult to pass on: When some accept it and some do not, a limited time window is established for returning it, and after that window, it is only a matter of going beyond the letter of the law.
Redeeming maaser sheni onto a worn coin:
From here the Mishnah moves to a completely new topic: transferring maaser sheni onto coins. Let us preface with a brief review of the concept itself. In the first, second, fourth, and fifth years of the seven-year Shemittah cycle, there is a mitzvah to separate an additional tenth of the crop that remains after separating Terumah gedolah for the kohen and maaser rishon for the levi. This tenth is called maaser sheni, and it must be brought up to Jerusalem and eaten there, specifically within the walls of the city.
The Torah itself establishes that if this is too difficult - perhaps the fruit will spoil or the jugs of wine are too heavy to carry - one may transfer the sanctity of the maaser sheni onto coins, bring the money up to Jerusalem, and spend it there to buy food.
However, there is a rule derived from the verse: we redeem the sanctity onto a coin, and we do not redeem it onto an asimon, a block of unminted metal. Since if the coin is not minted, it is not used as a coin but merely as a piece of silver, like bullion or raw silver, and one cannot transfer the sanctity onto it.
Hence the question: A person who redeems onto a minted coin, but the coin is now lacking in silver - do we have to worry that people will accept it based solely on its silver content? For even though it looks like a coin, they treat it like bullion, like a lump of silver whose value is only the value of the metal in it. Will this be considered an invalid redemption, as they are transferring the sanctity of maaser sheni produce onto a coin that is no longer valid?
To this the Mishnah says: "Unotnah lemaaser sheni ve'eino choshesh" - one may transfer the sanctity of the maaser sheni onto a coin, even if it is currently missing a sixth of its silver content. And the reason for this is: "she'eino ela nefesh raah" - that he is nothing but a bad soul. The Bartenura explains that whoever is not willing to accept this coin according to its face value - this is a ten-shekel coin, even though it only contains silver worth eight shekels - is a "nefesh raah," a person who is not generous. But others do indeed accept it, and therefore there is no problem here.
The amount of the redemption - a dispute among the Rishonim:
The Bartenura: There is no problem transferring the sanctity of the maaser sheni up to the level of its intrinsic value alone. With a ten-shekel coin that has silver worth eight shekels, one can transfer sanctity worth eight shekels, and not ten, as this is the value actually present in it.
The Rambam: As long as the coin can be used, even with difficulty, and there are those who accept it - it still has the status of a coin, and one can transfer sanctity onto it up to its full face value, ten shekels.
It makes sense that the Rambam's opinion is the primary halachah in matters of maaser sheni, since this area changes less than the evolving commercial reality dealt with in the first part of the Mishnah.
In summary: In this Mishnah we learned the time limit for returning a worn coin - in a large city, enough time to show it to a money changer, and in a village, until Friday evening, and regarding the reason for this, the Bartenura and the Rambam disagree. After the time has passed, we do not compel the giver, and even though as a measure of piety it is proper for him to take the coin back even after twelve months, the buyer has nothing but a grievance against him. In its second part, the Mishnah deals with transferring maaser sheni onto a worn coin, and establishes that one does not need to worry, "she'eino ela nefesh raah" - because he is nothing but a bad soul, and the Bartenura and the Rambam disagree as to whether we transfer sanctity up to the intrinsic value of the coin or up to its face value.