Does a document of a sale count as money? The Rashba, an important Rishon, holds no.

The Rashba (and Ramban [Rav Moshe ben Nahman. Nahmanides]) held a document is not money.
See the nook of the Rashba on Tractate Kidushin page 5 and also page 47.
 You see this in Kidushin and Pidion HaBen. The question that Rav Shach brings is from Bava Batra where the Rashba apparently holds a document of obligation should be considered as an exchange of money. [This Rashba is not the same one called the Rashba in Tospfot.]

The actual subject is famous. You have a cases where a slave is owned by two owners. Then one lets him go. So now he is half slave and half free. Now a slave becomes obligated in all commandments  when he is freed. [As a slave he is only obligated in commandments that a woman is obligated in.]
The question to the House of Hillel seems clear. He works for himself one day and then the next he workers for his owner. It goes back and forth every other day. But the students of Shamai asked but what about getting married? He can not marry a fee woman because he is half slave and he can not marry a woman slave because he is half free. So the owner has to let him go and the slave writes a document that he is obligated in the amount the owner is losing. The Rashba holds this is good. But why if the document is not money?
Rav Shach answers this in this way. The reason you need more than a document to be counted as money in terms of Kidushin and in businesses deals is that you need a buyer and a seller. For example lets says one would give money so that a field should be "hefker", well that would not work for this reason. But freeing of a slave is "pedia" letting go, or redeeming. It is not a business deal. Once the owner lets go, even if the reason is simply that he got a document saying that the slave will eventually pay him back that is enough.

[Actually this subject may not be famous since clearly Abraham Lincoln was unaware of it. Detroit would look different today of only Abe Lincoln had learned the Avi Ezri of Rav Shach.]

Why you can ask is this just when freedom is so important? Because everyone has their place and ought to fit into their place. Obligation is part of freedom as Hegel goes into. See his discussion in History.

[The reason this same reasoning does not apply to pidion ha'Ben or Kidushin is clear that in neither of these last two case do you have a חלות state of being that is already here in potential  but just waiting for something to trigger it so that it can become real.]

I have tried to present a case that learning Physics and Mathematics is a part of learning Torah based on an array of Rishonim [mediaeval authorities.] That means it does not depend on whether you are smart or not.
I also added to this the idea of the Gra about trust in God with no effort. That would apply even to learning that you just say the words in order and do not worry if you understand or not. You just believe that God will help you, and that eventually you will understand.
And not just that, but I think this kind of learning strengthens trust in God. I mean that searching for methods of learning is a kind of ריבוי השתדלות "over amount of effort".

[The idea of doing a minimum amount of effort I got from Rav Nahman of Breslov [Sichot HaRan 76]. He explains the idea of trust in God that you make a vessel in which the blessing can enter and then cease. Anything beyond that is ריבוי השתדלות too much effort which implies lack of trust in God.

ideas about trust in God are brought in the major book of Navardok מדריגת האדם "The Level of Man" but I found a lot of help in understanding the subject in the LeM of Rav Nahman.

Tolerance can not be a prime positive value.

Tolerance is not  prime positive value. The reason is that everyone has some out-group that they do not tolerate. The out-group for tolerant people is intolerant people. So tolerant people have a group they do not tolerate, i.e the intolerant. So the tolerant people are intolerant. So tolerant people can not allow themselves to be tolerated,- since they are not tolerant [of the intolerant].

If you hold that people ought to be decent and kind and honest, then you ought to postulate those as primary values.

w45 D Major   same piece in midi  dito same piece in nwc

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The Cold War was easy to figure out. USA values opposed to Communism. Where ever you were on that spectrum it was easy to see what the issues were. Now things seem a lot more hard to see.

When the issue was  about Communism I at least could read the basic books and see where I held on that issue. [I did not think Communism made much sense. However I did not think it was as terrible as some made it out to be either. The oddest thing in Uman was every single person I meet and asked about how things were back then always told me "Things were better then".]


As for myself, I figure my parents had things right. Be a "mensch" (decent human being). Be self reliant. Basic American values. But they taught by doing and almost never by words. I also ought to add that when the USA needed my Dad he volunteered for the USAF,  and afterwards helped with inventing stuff.  [Infrared Camera, the second camera on the U-2 (not the first team but the second team)) and then the satellites that used Infra red and then laser communication.]
 In any case I hope this gives the basic idea. I mean to say that in the USA there was a set of basic values that are not easy to explain now that most of them have been forgotten.

In terms of trust in God, I would like to add this idea of Kant--that you are not aware of what goes on under the surface of consciousness. You can be aware of what you are now thinking. And you can recall what you were thinking before. But under that surface you do not know what is going on. And I would like to add that you have a certain amount of control over what you are thinking about. While you might not have absolute control all teh time but at least some part of the time , you can control what you are thinking about. So you can think to yourself that God will help you. And you can replace negative thoughts with that positive thought.