My good friend Fraydee Bensimon loves coming up with themes for mishloach manos. She’s done ideas ranging from a bee and honey theme, a doctor/nurse theme, Curious George, a zoo theme and Super Mario. She shares her take on why themes are so nice: “Growing up, making mishloach manos with my family was a huge deal. Though my mom didn’t have themes, she always made sure to coordinate the items in the mishloach manos to make sure it looked pretty. It was a wonderful way to express our creativity together, and when I dream up creative mishloach manos themes, it’s a great way for me, and now my children too, to express our creativity.” She even agreed to reveal this year’s theme to Jewish Press readers – something related to superheroes!
Re-gifting – Eminently Practical Or Utterly Tacky?
The daughter of a well-known rav recalls the preparations she and her siblings made before Purim. “We always had lots of people bringing mishloach manos, but it would have been financially impossible to prepare an elaborate package for each one.” Instead, the creative Rebbetzin had all her children tie lollypops on small bottles of grape juice to distribute. “We usually made between 60 and 80, but inevitably, we ran out before the day was over, so my mother would just re-gift some of the hundreds of mishloach manos she had received from others.”
As a little girl, my father would take me along when he delivered mishloach manos to the rav of the local shul where he davened. I remember staring with wonder at the kitchen table that overflowed with the various offerings of all the ladies of the congregation. There was no way for the Rebbetzin to prepare so many mishloach manos at her age, so she simply plucked one out of the pile to send home with us.
Some might consider this tacky and impersonal, but for those families who receive tens, or even hundreds of mishloach manos every year, re-gifting is the most practical way to cut down on preparations and minimize the mounds of leftovers.
Fraydee Bensimon took re-gifting one step further and decided to use it as part of her recycling theme! Dressed in t-shirts with the recycling symbol, she and her family officially gave each recipient a mishloach manos package they had received from someone else. They prepared recycling-themed labels to put on each one, and included an adorable poem about how people throw out so much Purim nosh before Pesach, and how they were reducing, reusing, and recycling what they had already received.
An Opportunity For Thanks… And Marketing
By now the mitzvah of mishloach manos has evolved into an entire industry. It isn’t merely an expression of friendship to neighbors and family, but has become a whole new genre of corporate gifts.
Eli Oelbaum, CEO of BroadwayBasketeers.com, estimates that about 30% of the mishloach manos orders his company receives are corporate gifts. “Companies order baskets for their clients and vendors, and tzedakkah organizations send them to their big donors. If the company is ordering a large amount, we will even customize the mishloach manos with products that have the company logo.”
Eli speculates why Purim has become the holiday of choice for corporate gift-giving in the frum world. “Many religious Jews try to distance themselves from the gift-giving that is associated with the non-Jewish holiday season. Purim is a great time to send a thoughtful basket of treats, and sometimes even a gift, to show appreciation. It has become more than just a mitzvah, it’s an expression of goodwill, and an opportunity to express what you can’t easily say in words.”
