The three part series we are embarking on, The Story of Money, is a repeat, it first came out in 2020. While it is a fascinating story, we certainly can’t cover it all in one week, so we’re going to start this week, and have further installments in the next two weeks, so please do stay tuned! The information in this series is heavily gleaned from Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing, a great book on the subject by Jacob Goldstein.
Here’s Money – the Good, the Bad, and the Future.
The good side of money takes us back a long time. Thousands of year ago, about 90% of humans were subsistence farmers. They planted the food they needed, they churned their own butter, spun wool thread from their sheep to make clothes, and drank their cow’s milk before eating their cows meat. The farm would usually have a few needs that could not be met by the farm, perhaps they needed some metal for a plowshare, some dye for their clothing, or some whalebone buttons. For that they would barter, or trade some excess butter or a bolt of homemade cloth for the things they needed.
Barter was extremely inefficient. If the whalebone button maker didn’t need butter or cloth, you were out of luck. In order for any trade to work, a “double coincidence” had to exist between the buyer and seller’s needs and excesses, I have to have a surplus of what you need, AND you need to have a surplus of what I need! A world without a currency, a world where all exchanges are done as barter is a world of no money, and commerce is almost non-existent, as the double coincidences are too rare and can’t be relied upon at scale. Everyone had to make almost everything they needed themselves.
Soon people started using lumps of precious metals as currency; gold, silver, copper, and brass. This was a tremendous upgrade, because if Bob had excess butter, but no one in town had anything Bob needed, he could just sell his butter for some lumps of silver, and then when the whalebone button salesman rolled into town, he could buy the buttons he needed.
Lumps of metal were an upgrade, but they still created a lot of inefficiencies. Each lump weighed a different amount, and they usually weren’t pure silver or pure gold, but alloys, a mixture of metals. Sellers and buyers lost significant amounts of time just figuring out the value of the lumps of metal they were using!
Sometime around 600 BCE, in Lydia, which is now Turkey, coins were minted (there is much debate on the exact year and location the first coins showed up, so we are going with the earliest coins we have many of in existence today). They were made of pure metals or alloys of consistent percentages, they had a uniform weight, and they honored the local ruler by putting his likeness on each coin. Soon, people could transact with ease; everything had a value in coins, like a two year old goat that would sell for two Zuzim, as opposed to a two year old goat that costs two bushels of wheat, or four lengths of linen cloth, or one barrel of wine, or three flasks of olive oil.
Even coins, convenient and significant as they were, faced some challenges. Thieves would file down coins to get gold and silver from the shavings (hence the preventative ridges on the sides of dimes and quarters). Coins were also heavy. They worked fine for small transactions but buying homes or businesses, or making large loans to finance expeditions, meant moving a lot of weight around, and that kind of lucre could easily catch the eyes of the unsavory folk, making it not only bothersome but dangerous. Additionally, the price of the underlying metal fluctuated, and at times, the value of the gold could be more than the value of the currency, causing people to try to get as many of the coins as possible and melt them down to sell as bullion thus diminishing the monetary supply.
To illustrate, let’s look at ancient China, where the standard coin was a bronze disc with a hole in the middle, the hole making it convenient to string together many coins. A standard string contained 1,000 bronze discs and weighed about seven pounds. Imagine buying a herd of cows for 300 strings of coin, it makes you want to never do business again! In Sichuan, where bronze was scarce, it was even worse. They used iron, which was more common, but also worth less. Buying a pound of salt required paying with a pound and half of coins! A world with only coins is the world of bad money.
Innovation came to money in fits and spurts, but most fascinating is how paper money showed up, did an amazing job, and then disappeared from earth for centuries before making a comeback. In 1271, Marco Polo, a young explorer from Venice, made his way to China, spent twenty five years observing the ways of the East, came back to Italy where he got embroiled in a war, and was sent to prison in Genoa. While in prison, he dictated a book to his cellmate, which became a sensation across Europe, opening people’s eyes to a culture vastly different to their own. Chapter 24 is the one most relevant for this discussion, and it’s title alone is quite impressive: How the Great Kaan Causeth the Bark of Trees, Made into Something Like Paper, to Pass for Money All Over His Country. Let’s start with some background…
About 995 CE, three centuries before Marco Polo’s visit, businessmen in Sichuan were frustrated by the weight of their iron coins and the roadblocks it created for any meaningful business transactions. A merchant in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, started allowing people to leave their sacks of iron coins with him in a secure area, and he would write them receipts for the amount of coin they had deposited.
Anyone with the receipt could collect the coins, so if someone wanted to buy two pounds of salt, they could simply give a paper receipt for 3 pounds of iron coins, and walk away with the salt. The salt merchant could then use the receipt to buy chickens, and the chicken farmer could use the receipt to buy feed for his chickens! The receipts became enormously popular, and soon the merchant essentially became a bank, watching over people’s money and giving them paper that others would treat as money. Other merchants followed suit, and paper money was invented.
This was the first time that paper money became the norm in any city, and right away the danger presented itself. At some point, merchants realized that they could print receipts even without getting deposits of coin, and people would give them stuff for that paper, not realizing that there was nothing backing the paper! Fraud began to proliferate, people began to distrust paper money, and the government, recognizing how valuable paper money was to commerce, stepped in and took over the printing of money. Bills were printed on paper with many colors of ink, drawings of landscapes, the denomination, and on each one was a strict warning against fraud and counterfeit, which was punished by beheading.
Paper money solved so many problems that commerce flourished in China like nowhere else on the world. Artisans, merchants, and government officials moved into cities, knowing that they could easily buy whatever they needed at the marketplaces that sprang up throughout the cities, and cities flourished. While London and Paris each had less than 100,000 citizens, at least two cities in China had over a million!
Farmers could focus on cultivating a single crop in large quantities, knowing that they could sell the surplus and buy whatever else they needed. They could even get loans from banks to expand their farms. Food prices came down, less people were needed to grow food and more people could move to the cities and innovate. People were able to spend money on luxury items, and the economy was booming. By 1200, China was the richest and most technologically advance society in the world. Paper money was good money!
We’ll pick up with the story of money next week, but let’s first see what we can learn from money so far. We know that money makes commerce flow, and the easier it is to use that money, the more value it has in creating a wealthy and prosperous society. The Chovos Halevavos, the Duties of the Mind, a masterpiece of Jewish philosophy written around 1080 CE, reminds us that we need to thank Hashem for innovations that appear to be human-borne, but in truth only exist because Hashem planted this wisdom in our minds.
There is a reason that humans have figured out how to fly airplanes that weigh more than a herd of elephants, and build buildings that scrape the skies, while the smartest of animals haven’t figured out how to make a sandwich! It’s because G-d imbued us with a soul that is in the Image of G-d, and He is a creator, so He gave us the ability to create. And as the Chovos Halevavos explains, at different times in history, Hashem will plant certain ideas into people’s minds, at exactly the time that certain innovations are necessary for the development of the world.
At the time that the Chovos Halevavos was written, paper money had not yet been invented, but that didn’t stop the author, Rabbenu Bachya Ibn Pachuda, from reminding us how thankful we need to be to Hashem that he gave us the wisdom to have money! Gold and silver have very little inherent value. Yes, gold is used in certain industrial applications, but for the most part, these precious metals are not very useful ones, yet Hashem gave us this desire to stockpile them to the point that someone will trade bread for gold! Gold cannot feed a family, heal a person, or keep a house warm in winter, but people willingly trade food, medicines, or firewood for gold! This was part of Hashem’s design that we should have a monetary system because a world of barter is a world in which innovation, trade, commerce, and business has no way to get off the ground. Thank G-d for Money!
But let’s take it one step further. The weight of money is important too. Doing business with sacks full of bronze discs or wagonloads of iron coins is simply too much of a drag. The lighter and more transportable that money became, the more it was able to facilitate development and commerce, and the first country to tackle the paper money issue became the most advanced society in the world!
This is true not just in money, but in our Judaism as well. When Judaism sits heavy on our shoulders, when we see the mitzvos as heavy burdens that we are required to carry by the sackful or wagonload, we are not likely to do a lot of mitzvos or embrace our Judaism with joy. The lighter the mitzvos are, the more I look forward to interacting with them, the more I feel like each mitzvah is a stack of crisp $100 bills, the more I want to do them, the more I want to accumulate them!
On Chanuka, which we just finished, we lit the candles on the Menorah, which represents Torah wisdom. Fire is the one thing that not only doesn’t get weighed down, it actually jumps upward! The flames of Menorah, the flames that the Macabbees lit, show us that we should approach Torah wisdom as something that not only won’t weigh us down, but will actually lift us up!
In the days of the Tabernacle (the mobile Temple the Jews used in the desert), the Ark which held the Torah, would miraculously fly through the air, carrying with it the Levited that were supposed to carry it! The Torah is uplifting to all those that carry it, like the Chanukah lights dancing quietly heavenward. If we don’t have that experience, if we don’t feel the mitzvos and Torah as light and uplifting, we’re probably using the wrong currency, we’re probably not experiencing authentic Torah.
Let us remember the Chanukah lights and appreciate our Judaism. Let’s recognize the gift that Hashem gave us when he gave us the Torah and Mitzvos that are a “Staff of life for all who hold onto it.” Let us give thanks and praise to the Lord Above for giving us the very best currency of all!
Parsha Dvar Torah
In this week’s parsha Yosef reveals his true identity to his brothers. He then asks that they bring down their father Ya’akov and the entire family so that he can provide for them for the rest of the years of famine. The Torah tells us that when Pharaoh heard about Yosef’s family arrival he was very happy. “The news was heard in Pharaoh’s house that Yosef’s brothers had come. This was good [news] in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants.” (Gen. 45:16) What element of this news made Pharaoh happy? Why would he care wether or nt his viceroy had family?
The Ohr Hachaim (1696-1743, Talmudist and Kabbalist, born in Moroco and moved to Jerusalem in 1733) explains as follows: as long as Yosef’s family was unknown, the only identity Yosef had in people’s minds was as a former slave. It’s shameful for a king’s right hand man and viceroy to be a former slave. However, now that Yosef’s family was revealed and they were actually Jewish royalty, it gave honor to Pharaoh that his viceroy was from royal blood.
We can take this a step farther. All Jews are related. When we disparage another Jew, we are actually bringing shame to ourselves as well through association. However, when we build a fellow Jew up, and praise him, we not only bring honor to him, but to ourselves and the whole Jewish people as well Everyone who is still reading at this point is a wonderful, kind, warm, considerate, spiritual Jew. See, I just gave myself a lot of compliments, and no one is going to look at me funny. What a tool!
Parsha Summary
This week’s parsha, Vayigash, starts off at the charged moment where we left off last week. Yosef’s special silver goblet had been “found” in Binyamin’s sack, and he was hauled back to the palace to become a slave. The ten other brothers are not willing to see their brother taken. They follow him down, and stand to plea before Yosef. Notably, it is Yehuda who speaks with Yosef because he was the one who guaranteed Binyamin’s return. Yehuda launches into a long explanation as to why it is imperative that Binyamin be allowed to go back to his father. He explains that if Binyamin doesn’t return, their father is liable to die from the anguish.
At this point, Yosef decides that it is the right time to reveal himself to his brothers so he orders all the Egyptians out of the room (so that they not witness the brothers’ humiliation upon realizing the enormity of what they had done). Then he says, “I am Yosef, is my father still alive?” The implication is – why were you not concerned with our father’s health when you sold me and let him think I was killed by a wild animal? The brothers were so disconcerted that they couldn’t speak. But Yosef was not one to rub salt in old wounds. As soon as he saw that his brothers were contrite, he consoled them, telling them that selling him was all part of a divine plan so that he would be able to support the family throughout the remaining years of the famine.
Yosef asks that his family come down to Egypt where he would provide them with fertile land and food. Pharaoh seconds the motion. Yosef sends the brothers back with bountiful supplies and special wagons which were symbolic of the last Torah lesson Ya’akov gave Yosef. These wagons were meant to show Ya’akov that Yosef was still on the straight and narrow.
Ya’akov hears about Yosef’s situation, and he sees the wagons indicating his son’s spiritual position, and his spirit is revived. On the way down to Egypt, G-d comes to Ya’akov at night and tells him that He will be with him, and will make sure that his descendants come out of the land of Egypt.
The Torah then recounts the lineage of Ya’akov’s progeny. It also mentions that Ya’akov sent Yehuda ahead of him to Goshen (possibly the first Jewish ghetto ever), the place the Jews inhabited in Egypt to set up a Yeshiva. He did this because he recognized that the only way the Jewish people would be able to maintain their Jewish identity in Egypt is if they have significant Jewish education, a realization that rings very true today.
Ya’akov and Yosef have a tearful reunion after a 22 year separation. At this momentous occasion, Ya’akov recites Shema, indicating that every joyous occasion should be experienced with G-d. When the family goes to meet Pharaoh, Yosef instructs his brothers to tell Pharaoh they are shepherds, as this way he will leave them alone (whereas had they told him they were warriors he would try to draft them). Pharaoh and Ya’akov share pleasantries and bless each other.
The parsha concludes by telling us how Yosef managed Egypt during the famine. He was the only person who had any grain, so everyone sold him their land. He told everyone they could have land as long as they moved (this way his family wouldn’t feel out of place when they settled in a new place), and that they had to give one fifth of their crops to the Pharaoh as tax. Back then they didn’t charge a Social Security tax, and today they shouldn’t either because there is very little likelihood that I’ll get the benefits by the time I retire, what with the S.S. crisis. But that’s a discussion for a different time. That’s all folks!
Quote of the Week: We all want to be in the city of happiness, but the city of happiness can only be found in the state of mind! ~ Frank Stanly
Random Fact of the Week: The trunk of the African baobab tree can grow as large as 100 feet in circumference.
Funny Line of the Week: The face of a child can say it all, especially the mouth part of the face!
Have a Nifty Shabbos,
R’ Leiby Burnham
