Mishloach manot
Mar. 10th, 2005 04:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidAKA shlach manos. In two weeks, it'll be Purim1, time of much silliness, costumes, and, of course, food. More specifically, Jews are enjoined to (a) have a festive meal on Purim day (for the rabbis, festive = including meat and wine with your bread), and (b) send portions of food to one another, mishloach manot2.
I used to end up spending far too much time planning mishloach manot, what to give, who to give to. The absolute minimum is giving one person two kinds of ready-to-eat food3. What are the different kinds? It's based on what blessing is said before eating that food. The categories are: fruit, veggie, grain-based, bread, wine, and everything else. Practically speaking, it means a lot of people give a bag with cookies and candy (grain-based and everything else). I try not to do that, mostly because people are freqently exchanging mishloach manot right after shacharit, and starting the day with a sugar high is not ideal for me (and yes, I'm projecting that to everyone else). Since I bake a lot of bread, it's the obvious thing to make, especially for breakfast. A roll and something to put on it, or drink with it. Ideally, nothing that requires refrigeration, though some years I've put salad in. This year, I'm thinking of rolls and jam, with a plastic knife and napkins, which is fairly easy, if I time the bread properly. Or bread and some kind of hard cheese, maybe.
Which leads to the question of who to give to. A decade (or more) ago, I'd spend Purim evening assembling bags and bags and bags, then schlepping those in to shul in the morning, for the Mad Mishloach Manot Trade4. It left me exhausted, unable to enjoy Purim evening. And it became a big social tit-for-tat situation. What if I don't give to X who's given to me? Is that uncouth? An insult? Etc. I realized that part of the problem was the whole mob scene at shul, so one year I changed strategies, deciding to deliver packages to people at home. Which meant I could just go to shul in the morning, and not deal with everything else. It also cut down on my quantities severely, since I decided not to give to people if I couldn't get to their front door. So people in big buildings were out, as were the many undergrads and people who I didn't know where they lived (OK, I've been rewording that sentence too many times, and the grammar just doesn't work. Sorry.). On the up-side, making so many fewer packages allows for a bit more flexibility in what to give particular people, especially taking allergies and such into account.
Which leads back to what to give this year. Bread and jam are easy. Part of me really likes the idea of giving a meal, somehow, perhaps a quiche and a bag of salad, or other things that are reasonably portable. Or, since it's erev Shabbat, give a pair of braided challot and a bottle of wine/grape juice. Though people will already have their Shabbat food made. *ponder*
1 See the book of Esther (aka Megillat Esther) for more details. The short version: prime minister Haman hated Jews, and angled to have us destroyed in the many lands ruled by the king. Unfortunately for him, the woman who won the queen beauty contest (or whatever it was) turned out to be Jewish, and she convinced the king otherwise. Much rejoicing, even without eating Robin's minstrel.
2 OK, there are two other things one is supposed to do (hear the megillah and give charity). In a move surprising no one, I'm focusing on the food :-)
3 One year I received mishloach manot at the tail end of the day. Curious, I asked how many this friend had given out (I'd found it as I came back from circling the city by bus delivering a number of packages), and he told me that the requirement is two foods to one person. It still makes me think fond thoughts of him. (OK, I admit it; someone I was sweet on at the time.)
4 And Purim is exactly one month before Pesach, so of course everyone wants lots of extra non-kosher-for-Passover things to eat. *snerk*
I used to end up spending far too much time planning mishloach manot, what to give, who to give to. The absolute minimum is giving one person two kinds of ready-to-eat food3. What are the different kinds? It's based on what blessing is said before eating that food. The categories are: fruit, veggie, grain-based, bread, wine, and everything else. Practically speaking, it means a lot of people give a bag with cookies and candy (grain-based and everything else). I try not to do that, mostly because people are freqently exchanging mishloach manot right after shacharit, and starting the day with a sugar high is not ideal for me (and yes, I'm projecting that to everyone else). Since I bake a lot of bread, it's the obvious thing to make, especially for breakfast. A roll and something to put on it, or drink with it. Ideally, nothing that requires refrigeration, though some years I've put salad in. This year, I'm thinking of rolls and jam, with a plastic knife and napkins, which is fairly easy, if I time the bread properly. Or bread and some kind of hard cheese, maybe.
Which leads to the question of who to give to. A decade (or more) ago, I'd spend Purim evening assembling bags and bags and bags, then schlepping those in to shul in the morning, for the Mad Mishloach Manot Trade4. It left me exhausted, unable to enjoy Purim evening. And it became a big social tit-for-tat situation. What if I don't give to X who's given to me? Is that uncouth? An insult? Etc. I realized that part of the problem was the whole mob scene at shul, so one year I changed strategies, deciding to deliver packages to people at home. Which meant I could just go to shul in the morning, and not deal with everything else. It also cut down on my quantities severely, since I decided not to give to people if I couldn't get to their front door. So people in big buildings were out, as were the many undergrads and people who I didn't know where they lived (OK, I've been rewording that sentence too many times, and the grammar just doesn't work. Sorry.). On the up-side, making so many fewer packages allows for a bit more flexibility in what to give particular people, especially taking allergies and such into account.
Which leads back to what to give this year. Bread and jam are easy. Part of me really likes the idea of giving a meal, somehow, perhaps a quiche and a bag of salad, or other things that are reasonably portable. Or, since it's erev Shabbat, give a pair of braided challot and a bottle of wine/grape juice. Though people will already have their Shabbat food made. *ponder*
1 See the book of Esther (aka Megillat Esther) for more details. The short version: prime minister Haman hated Jews, and angled to have us destroyed in the many lands ruled by the king. Unfortunately for him, the woman who won the queen beauty contest (or whatever it was) turned out to be Jewish, and she convinced the king otherwise. Much rejoicing, even without eating Robin's minstrel.
2 OK, there are two other things one is supposed to do (hear the megillah and give charity). In a move surprising no one, I'm focusing on the food :-)
3 One year I received mishloach manot at the tail end of the day. Curious, I asked how many this friend had given out (I'd found it as I came back from circling the city by bus delivering a number of packages), and he told me that the requirement is two foods to one person. It still makes me think fond thoughts of him. (OK, I admit it; someone I was sweet on at the time.)
4 And Purim is exactly one month before Pesach, so of course everyone wants lots of extra non-kosher-for-Passover things to eat. *snerk*