Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Mishloach Manos

Along the mishloach manos run it is ienitable to hit the person who is not home and face the dilemma of do you leave it at the doorstep or not. The Aruch haShulacan writes that the recipient of mihsloach manos must get it on Purim day - leaving it on someone's doorstep for them to discover when they get home is not enough. The point is to enhance the simchas Purim of the recipient or their seudah bo bayom. An even bigger chiddush in the A.H. is that the "shlichus" of mishloach manos must also be done bo bayom - if you ship a parcel before Purim, even if the recipient gets it on Purim day, you would not be yotzei. Finally, with respect to the shiur of mishloach manos, the Aruch haShulchan writes that "manos" means something substantial, not just a k'zayis or k'beitzah. It is clear from the gemara that the shiur is relative to what a person considers "chashuv" (the gemara says that Abaye send back Rabbah's gift after Rabbah became Rosh Yeshiva and demanded something better from him in line with his lofty position). The Chayei Adam brings this from the Ritva l'halacha. I told my wife that since we are living in the 5 Towns I feel in somewhat of a quandry - perhaps mishloach manos should be a bottle of champagne and a catered platter of food? I hope not!

2 comments:

  1. The way I look at it, you are only mechuyav to give one mishloach manos. The rest is b'geder "I don't want to insult you so I'll give youy.". Therefore, I figure as long as one of my mishloach manos meets the criteria then I am fine. Of the 500 or so we give out (that was a joke) I am pretty confident one of them fits the qualifications for me to be yotzei.

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