Buying Mishloach Manos

The other one is a nickel.

Hmmm…is it hoitzuas shabbos veyom tov? Then it doesnt cost.

He never ceases to amaze me.

I regret to inform you that your intended mishloach manos may be of questionable validity, as per one of the biggest rabbis in the world, HaGaon Rav Shternbuch shlita.

“I am bewildered”, says Rav Moshe Shternbuch, “that people are not midakdek to be mikayen the mitzva [of mishloach manos] that is a mitzva from the nevi’im.” Rabbeinu Chananel (Megila 7a) tells a story of Rebbi Yehuda Nesia who sent mishloach manos to Rav Hoshaya. He sent a thigh of veal and a bottle of wine. Rav Hoshaya sent back that he was mikayen the mitzva of matanos l’evyonim but not mishloach manos. He then sent him the veal again with three bottles of wine.

Rav Moshe Shternbuch explains (2:345) that the mitzva of mishloach manos require two manos chashuvos, two respectable portions. The veal was fine but the second one, a single bottle of wine, was fit for a poor person and not a man of substantial means. Even wine is not enough if the portion is not lavish enough for a seudah.

In whose eyes must the portion be respectable, the sender or the recipient? Rav Shternbuch says that it depends on the reason for mishloach manos. If it is to increase friendship, marbeh rei’us , then as long as the giver gave something respectable in his own eyes it will be appreciated by the sender. However, if the reason is that the recipient should have nice food for seudas purim then it must meet his standards. Therefore to be sure, says Rav Shternbuch it is incumbent on every person to send to one person a mishloach manos with two foods where each one is lavish in the eyes of both the giver and recipient.