Having Mishaloach Manos Delivered vis Amazon

Avodah
1

From today's OU Kosher Halacha Yomis. Please see my question at the end.

Q. I ordered a food package on Amazon two days before Purim with guaranteed delivery to my friend on Purim day. Do I fulfill the mitzvah of Mishloach Manos with such an arrangement?

A. This is a matter of dispute among the poskim. Some hold that by doing so he does fulfill his obligation of Mishloach Manos (Be’er Heitev to OC 695:7, citing Yad Aharon; Da’as Torah in the name of Mahari Assad, and Rav Elyashiv, cited in Yevakshu Mipihu, Purim 1:31). However Aruch HaShulchan (695:17) held that one does not fulfill Mishloach Manos with this arrangement. The Ben Ish Chai (Teshuvos Torah Lishmah 188) explains the reasoning behind this dispute as follows: In the previous Halacha Yomis we learned that there is a dispute as to why Mishloach Manos are given. Is it to engender good will and camaraderie between people (Manos Halevi), or is it to ensure that poor people have sufficient food for their Purim Seudah (Terumas HaDeshen)? If Mishloach Manos are to foster good will – one must send the food on Purim itself because sending the food is part of the mitzvah. Those who hold that one is yotzei, take the position that the purpose of Mishloach Manos is for the recipient to have sufficient food for the seudah. Hence, as long as the food is received on Purim – even if it was sent prior to Purim – the sender has fulfilled his obligation of Mishloach Manos, as the recipient will now have sufficient food for his seudah.

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The SA requires two manos, not two foods. Two foods, or the AhS's version
of two berakhos, is minhag.

Which raises a question I would CYLOR before following your practice. Say
I would choose to give a salad and croutons for one. Presumably it is
likely the person would put the croutons into the salad, and I only gave
one maneh!

One can argue from the Rambam's Hikkhos Tzedaqah that the same applies
to michloach manos, and it's better to give smaller m"m to more people.
Or maybe not.

The question of how to safely do mishloach manos this year is a touchy
one, and depends on local conditions. I heard one LOR recommend giving
just one person whom you've already had similar contact with, and save
all the great "themed shalachmanos" ideas for next year.

Last year, the week before Pesach was a vary sad one in our community. (I
still cry when I think of R Matis Blum's [Torah Loda'as] mother, someone
who fed me many a Shabbos Qiddush snack when I was a boy, who was still
sitting shiv'ah for R Matis when she started shiv'ah for her husband.)

But last Purim, we weren't aware of the notion of a "superspreader event".

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

3

So according to you if someone sent me a roll and and cold cuts and I made a sandwich, then that would also be on maneh.

I think not!

The salad and croutons are 2 different things. They have two different brochos, even if combined.

YL

4

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R' Micha Berger wrote:

The SA requires two manos, not two foods. Two foods, or the
AhS's version of two berakhos, is minhag.

Which raises a question I would CYLOR before following your
practice. Say I would choose to give a salad and croutons for
one. Presumably it is likely the person would put the croutons
into the salad, and I only gave one maneh!

Do you have a source for this distinction? The Aruch Hashulchan is very
clear that "two manos" DOES mean "two types of food."

Aruch Hashulchan 695:14 writes: "One has to send two types of food ... But
two pieces of a single type doesn't help. Just because he cut them, it is
considered as two??" He makes no mention of the size of these pieces; if I
give a nice-size portion of meat, and then a second portion just like it,
it doesn't count, because it needs to be TWO TYPES of food.

The AhS quotes the Rambam as writing, "two portions of meat, or two types
of food, or two types of tavshil." [Note the change in language: Rambam
used the word "manos" for the meat, but "minim" for food and tavshil.] AhS
concludes that "His writing 'two types' forces you to say that when he
wrote 'two portions of meat' he meant 'of two types'. Or. maybe it was a
printer's error and it should have said 'two types of meat' just like 'two
types of food'."

In your scenario, where I gave someone a bowl of salad, and a second bowl
of croutons, this is surely two separate foods, and I am yotzay. If the
recipient chooses to mix them together, that is his doing, but I'm already
yotzay.

An interesting variant of that scenario would be where I already mixed the
salad and croutons together and *then* gave it to him. Is this a single
food with which I am NOT yotzay (though I could be if I also gave a second,
*different* salad)? Or perhaps, maybe the one salad is still considered to
be several foods, such that I *can* be yotzay with it? [[ The AhS MIGHT
have written: "One has to send two types of food ... and a mixture of two
types doesn't hurt. Just because he mixed them, it is considered as one?? ]]

One thing RMB certainly agree on is: CYLOR!

Akiva Miller

5

Do you have a source for this distinction? The Aruch Hashulchan is very
clear that "two manos" DOES mean "two types of food."

Aruch Hashulchan 695:14 writes: "One has to send two types of food ... But
two pieces of a single type doesn't help. Just because he cut them, it is
considered as two??" ...

In se'if 13 he says "uba'inan shetei manos... veyotz'in be'echad". Which
being darshened from the word "rei'eka" would seem to mean 1 person
(getting the 2 manos) except he doesn't get to the number

And se'if 15 talks about the size of a maneh, "ke'ein chatikhah
hara'ui lehiskhabeid".

All that aside, yes, the AhS comes down on one side. In this case, he
is defending common practice against the SA se'if 4. For all the AhS's
saying the Rambam must have originally been "minim" across the board
rather than "manos", the Mechaber pasqens 2 manos. And there is no hagah
from the Rama saying otherwise.

Which is, again, why I think we are in CYLOR territory.

So according to you if someone sent me a roll and and cold cuts and I made
a sandwich, then that would also be on maneh.

No, I am saying it could well be that that's the halakhah, so CYLOR.
What you consider obvious doesn't seem so when you look at the sources.

I think not!

The salad and croutons are 2 different things. They have two different
brochos, even if combined.

According to the SA, the halakhah speaks of two servings.

The fundamental halakhah doesn't care about "two berakhos", and according
to the SA, not even whether it's two kinds of food. Giving two hamburgers
may not be our minhag, but it is clear that both the SA and the Rama would
say you are yotzei. (OC 695:4) The Arukh haShulchan (se'if 15) talks about
the manos being generous, so you can't be yotzei giving just two kezeisim.

So yes, if you give a hamburger and a bun, you could very well not be
yotzei. That's exactly the logic. You say "I think not!" but why not? Do
you have a maqor? That's why I would get an expert opinion before doing
the same.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

6

.
R' Micha Berger wrote:

For all the AhS's saying the Rambam must have originally been
"minim" across the board rather than "manos", the Mechaber
pasqens 2 manos. And there is no hagah from the Rama saying
otherwise.
Which is, again, why I think we are in CYLOR territory.

I'd like to suggest, aliba d'RMB, how this development (from "two manos" to
"two minim") might have occurred. (If he wrote this in his posts, then
apologize for not seeing it.)

But - today being National V'nahapoch Hu Day - I'll begin at the end of the
story.

There is a well-known practice nowadays (I will not call it a minhag, and
AFAIK not a single posek anywhere requires it) that one's basic "two manos"
should be of food that have different brachos. The reason for this (in my
eyes, quite obviously) is because of what counts as two "minim". Is a
chicken wing and a leg two minim or that same min? What of a cookie and a
donut? White wine and red? Two different white wines? Choosing foods of
different bracha removes the confusion.

Similarly, I can very easily imagine confusion over how large a "maneh"
must be. Imagine one piece of roast, and another piece of roast. That could
be two portions for an ani, or a half-portion for a teenager. So it evolved
into "two minim", which simplified things greatly.

Just a guess, of course.

Akiva Miller