Some thoughts on mishloach manos
I've written about the mitzvah of mishloach manos before and I would echo the sentiment Sephardi Lady expressed here. I'm the last one to say that one has to spend a fortune to come up with something really impressive looking or with some type of dish or container that the recipient would keep. But that doesn't mean that people should just randomly throw some candies or other stuff they have in the house together.
Ideally, the food given should enhance the Purim seudah in some way. Certainly, if I know something about the recipient's taste, I try to use that in planning the mishloach manos. So the neighbor who favors peach sparkling grape juice gets a bottle of that along with some food. And the child who has diabetes get a snack that is not based on sugar in her package. Certainly, I would never throw dairy non-cholov Yisrael snacks in to someone I know or even suspect keeps cholov Yisrael. It seems obvious to me because the point is to give the person something s/he will enjoy eating. Just like you wouldn't give a nut-based food to someone you know has allergies or something made of meat to someone who eats on vegetarian, it is equally inappropriate to give something that you know the person won't eat because of the kashruth standards. Seems obvious to me, but someone did just that -- presented my son with a mishloach manos with Kudo bars making up the food. He said he knows that he keeps cholov Yisrael, but maybe he could pass it on to someone who doesn't.
Visit my site www.kallahmagazine.com -- not just for kallahs. You can also see posts at http://www.examiner.com/x-18522-NY-Jewish-Bridal-Examiner
Ideally, the food given should enhance the Purim seudah in some way. Certainly, if I know something about the recipient's taste, I try to use that in planning the mishloach manos. So the neighbor who favors peach sparkling grape juice gets a bottle of that along with some food. And the child who has diabetes get a snack that is not based on sugar in her package. Certainly, I would never throw dairy non-cholov Yisrael snacks in to someone I know or even suspect keeps cholov Yisrael. It seems obvious to me because the point is to give the person something s/he will enjoy eating. Just like you wouldn't give a nut-based food to someone you know has allergies or something made of meat to someone who eats on vegetarian, it is equally inappropriate to give something that you know the person won't eat because of the kashruth standards. Seems obvious to me, but someone did just that -- presented my son with a mishloach manos with Kudo bars making up the food. He said he knows that he keeps cholov Yisrael, but maybe he could pass it on to someone who doesn't.
Visit my site www.kallahmagazine.com -- not just for kallahs. You can also see posts at http://www.examiner.com/x-18522-NY-Jewish-Bridal-Examiner
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