Thoughts on Purim and Poverty/Hunger Issues
[for source texts and additional reading]
There are three main mitzvot associated with the holiday of Purim, apart from the commandment to hear the reading of Megillat Esther: feasting (seuda), sending portions to friends (mishloach manot), and sending gifts to the poor (matanot l’evyonim). In this essay I will explore some themes that emerge from the Rambam’s discussion of these three mitzvot in his Mishneh Torah, and try to understand what they tell us about our response as a community to the poor among us.
Rabbi Moshe Taragin demonstrates that mishloach manot must be conceived as part of the mitzva of feasting: he begins his analysis with the observation that the Rambam mentions both in one and the same paragraph (2:15) in the Mishneh Torah on Megilla, which generally indicates that the Rambam thought them logically interwoven. Thus the Rambam may have seen mishloach manot as an extended form of sharing the Purim seuda. [R. Taragin supports this conclusion from many other sources as well.]
The Rambam continues (M.T. Megilla 2:17):
It is better to give more gifts to the poor than [spend] more on one’s seuda or on mishloach manot, for there is no great and glorious joy like the joy of gladdening the hearts of poor people, widows, orphans, and converts. One who gladdens the hearts of these unfortunates is compared to the Divine Presence, as it is said, "...to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the oppressed." [Isaiah 57:15]
Here as in hilchot Yom Tov, the Rambam is concerned with those who are likely to feel isolated or who, due to their social circumstances, might have a less than full rejoicing on the holiday. Widows and orphans may not have family to share the holiday, and probably suffer economic deprivation also: converts probably have little or no Jewish family and should not be left in isolation: the poor are limited in spending for the holiday meals because of their lack of resources. Throughout the Rambam’s works he expresses the idea which he finds implicit in halacha that there is no celebration of any holiday unless these people in particular are included.
One of the ways that "poverty is like death" is that it prevents a person from participating in the life of the community in important ways. Offering hospitality in particular is identified as the speciality of Avraham Avinu, yet a poor person may be embarrassed to offer the little that he has - and well-meaning friends may turn him down even if he offers, because they wish to spare him the imposition. What can remind him more of his marginal status? In fact the halacha requires that even one who is poor and depends on tzedaka must give tzedaka, even to the extent that two poor people may exchange tzedaka with each other. In this vein, the Talmud (Megilla 7a) reports that two rabbaim used to alternate years in which one would host the Purim seuda and invite the other. It lends dignity to have the role of provider. We cannot ignore that the halacha extends this dignity to the poor as to those who are not poor.
Return to the mitzva of matanot l’evyonim. Why does it appear amongst the mitzvot of Purim? It is not merely tzedaka - in fact it is specifically in addition to the usual mitzva of tzedaka. And it cannot be merely a matter of ensuring that the poor have food to eat, or even of ensuring that they have special holiday food, since the Rambam has a general principle that there is an obligation that the poor be fed whenever there is a holiday seuda. Why then this additional, seemingly redundant mitzva?
Note that the Rambam mentions the gifts to the poor in the same sentence with (and over against) mishloach manot and seuda. It must be that he sees these three as logically connected, and I think not merely by their being mentioned together in Esther. It seems to me that they are mentioned together, in Esther and also by the Rambam, because they have a common purpose.
On Purim we celebrate not merely with the fine meal that we eat, but with sharing our meal and having other meals shared with us. We achieve this incredible feat - simultaneously sharing many meals, as it were - by means of mishloach manot. And the gifts to the poor help to put the poor person, at least for the day, on a par with every other Jew with respect to this form of celebration. Therefore this gift is on top of the usual requirement of tzedaka, so that the poor person on this day not only is to be provided with "all his needs," but more, so that he can generously share.
In many communities, mishloach manot has become a competitive sport and a strain on those who are concerned with arranging it. It is a popularity contest for the recipients. Surely this is not in the spirit of the halacha and even less so of the Rambam’s sensitive reading of it. It is a wonderful thing to be able to acknowledge our friendships with generous gifts of food at this time: I would not take anything from that. But the Rambam indicates that our more urgent goal is to ensure that those who might find themselves lonely or embarrassed on this day are made to feel fully part of the celebration.
On Purim, when we celebrate our deliverance from the plot which would have destroyed us all together as equals, we are commended to celebrate all together as equals. As Rabbi Hanina says in the gemara, "everyone became poor in [Achashverosh’s] time."
