Goodbye, my friend, the penny. Our smallest coin is going the way of our smallest planet, Pluto. The US Mint is no longer producing the penny; it just doesn’t make any cents. There's something that tugs at your heart when you think about the demise of the penny. A nickel for your thoughts just doesn't sound right. And you're certainly not going to throw a nickel or a dime into a wishing well! This smallest piece of currency is usually our first relationship with money. We teach our children about the very best place for a penny (A Pushka, charity box, of course!).
The penny allows us to exchange the precise amount of money. No rounding up or down. There is something so satisfying about this precision. More importantly, one cent is the smallest piece of currency; it represents our smallest effort that somehow still has value. Indeed, our sages share: “Each and every Perutah (the smallest coin of old) combines to create a large sum.” (Baba Batra 9b)
How are we to comfort ourselves for this cupreous casualty?
The Talmud has very good news about this loss. There is a list of events that will occur right before the coming of the Messiah; one of them is directly connected to the penny. “The son of David (the Messiah) will not come until the Perutah (penny) has ceased from the purse.”
The penny represents our smallest effort. Perhaps this Talmudic portent is relating that each of us has to make sure that we are doing every last positive deed to transform the world. Do not hold back even the smallest Mitzvah. Maimonides teaches that we should envision that our next action will change the entire world! (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Teshuvah 3:4)
Our smallest effort is thus not lost; it is invested in the glorious future we are about to behold.
PS By no coincidence (you can read that word two ways), this week’s Torah portion speaks about currency, with the purchase of the Machpelah Cave for the burial of Sarah, and the cent is mentioned as not being 1/100th, but rather 100. The Talmud relates: “And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver…four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant” (Genesis 23:16), i.e., shekels that could be used in any location. This teaches that not only did Ephron take shekels from Abraham, he took from him only centenaria, i.e., superior coins, as there is a place where they call a shekel a centenarius. (Baba Metzia 87a)