Thoughts on recycling mishloach manos

amother

Aquamarine

Tue, Mar 14 2017, 5:27 pm

I was just thinking to myself if my friend took the two minutes to recycle mishloach manos for me, I think its so special. No?
In all honesty I don't need mishloach manos, I have to be mikayem the mitzva and I am good.

zaq

Tue, Mar 14 2017, 8:21 pm

Op your post is extremely unclear. What are you getting at? Are you saying moichel toives, if you can't give me my own first hand MM I don't want your hand me down MM? Are you saying giving away in a MM things you received for MM is not fulfilling the mitzvah? Are you resentful that people give you recycled MM? And how do you know it's recycled anyway? Many people shop at the same stores and buy identical merchandise.

Now if you got a MM from Seafoam with a tag To Seafoam from Magenta, that would be pretty stupid of Seafoam. Personally I would be highly amused, especially if it was good stuff. What do I care if she assembled the MM herself or gave me something she got? See, Seafoam is not obligated to give me anything. She could have kept it all for herself but she wanted me to have it.

And of course even if we did get a package tagged To Aquamarine from Magenta , if we put on our dlkz hats we can imagine that it was an honest mistake, in all the hustle and bustle some packages got switched and ended up in the wrong hands. Somewhere there may be a package labeled to Zaq from Aquamarine and a very perplexed Copper wondering how it came to her. But it really shouldn't matter.

amother

Seafoam

Tue, Mar 14 2017, 11:26 pm

There was a time when I was younger that this would have offended me. Now I couldn't care less. In this community MM is 99% junk food which I don't allow in my house and I'm giving it away anyhow. So I hope people do recycle and not go to any expense or trouble to give me stuff I wont enjoy anyhow.

Simple1

Tue, Mar 14 2017, 11:36 pm

They may have had you on their list, but ran out because they had unexpected people show up.

It's better than leaving people empty handed.

It's such a busy day that it makes sense not to take offense from anyone.

There are better and worse ways to give a recycled MM - like make sure there are no name tags. And to put in a thoughtful combination of foods into an appropriately sized package. For example, I once got a gift bag which a handful of small random candies thrown into the bottom of the bag.

One that made me a little uncomfortable was a huge fancy MM. She admitted that her husband got it from a client.

Also, I do think it's important not to recycle homemade and pass it off as your own - especially if there's reason to be concerned about hechsher or whatever. It's funny I once got beautiful home made truffles. I called her up to compliment her on it. She sounded confused and said she gave out something else. I quickly changed the subject.

amother

Plum

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 12:09 am

I recycle but not whole. Meaning, I take the food out, rearrange with others and replace in a different container from someone else. I don't hand over the exact thing as is unless it's in a different city.

Raisin

Wed, Mar 15 2017, 5:58 am

If you are doing a theme and then run out I guess some people might be disappointed. Once, I remember a friend spent literally months telling me about her mm theme. What container she was using, where she was buying it, what she would put in it, etc. Then it came to purim and she gave me something entirely different. (not recycled, just a different mm) Seems I didn't make the cut for her special themed mm. LOL