שווה כסף something worth money is considered as money to Rav Haim of Brisk but to Rav Shach it is in the category of barter.
The issue is how to marry a woman. That works by means of actual money. [I mean some kind of coin. Not paper money.] But also it works by means of something worth money. Tosphot asks how do we know this? After all the fact that money works we learn from the field of Efron the Hitite. Tospfot says right on the first page of Kidushin that something worth money works to marry we learn from a Hebrew slave. That means that in the verse of how a Hebrew slave is redeemed it says כסף ישיב לבעליו and from the extra words we learn this includes something worth money שווה כסף.
The question on this is that learning from place to place by a "gezera shava" גזירה שווה only works if you learn everything, But here you do not since a Hebrew slave that is owned by a gentile can not be redeemed by something worth money שווה כסף,-- only by actual physical money. Rav Shach answers this question in this way. This is the important principle: that there are different kinds of acquisition. For example an when a person is hired to work for someone else. Lets says he is hired to work for the manager of the bank for a five year contract. So even though he is not owned by the manager, still here is a "kinyan".
That is the same kind of thing as a Hebrew slave or marrying a woman. There is not an acquisition of the person but there is a different kind of acquisition. So you can learn something worth money can acquire for this kind of acquisition.
[I had forgotten this very point until my learning partner in Uman David Bronson showed me that there are many different kinds of kinyanim קניניים acquisitions. They something mean ownership of an object. But other times it might mean a acquisition of certain obligations or rights as when an employee is hired for a job. He has an obligation to fulfill the contract but his body is not owned by the employer.]
The issue is how to marry a woman. That works by means of actual money. [I mean some kind of coin. Not paper money.] But also it works by means of something worth money. Tosphot asks how do we know this? After all the fact that money works we learn from the field of Efron the Hitite. Tospfot says right on the first page of Kidushin that something worth money works to marry we learn from a Hebrew slave. That means that in the verse of how a Hebrew slave is redeemed it says כסף ישיב לבעליו and from the extra words we learn this includes something worth money שווה כסף.
The question on this is that learning from place to place by a "gezera shava" גזירה שווה only works if you learn everything, But here you do not since a Hebrew slave that is owned by a gentile can not be redeemed by something worth money שווה כסף,-- only by actual physical money. Rav Shach answers this question in this way. This is the important principle: that there are different kinds of acquisition. For example an when a person is hired to work for someone else. Lets says he is hired to work for the manager of the bank for a five year contract. So even though he is not owned by the manager, still here is a "kinyan".
That is the same kind of thing as a Hebrew slave or marrying a woman. There is not an acquisition of the person but there is a different kind of acquisition. So you can learn something worth money can acquire for this kind of acquisition.
[I had forgotten this very point until my learning partner in Uman David Bronson showed me that there are many different kinds of kinyanim קניניים acquisitions. They something mean ownership of an object. But other times it might mean a acquisition of certain obligations or rights as when an employee is hired for a job. He has an obligation to fulfill the contract but his body is not owned by the employer.]
