These are source text which I consulted in writing my essay, Thoughts on Purim and Poverty/Hunger Issues
Esther 9:22
...that they should make them days of drinking and happiness, send portions [mishloach manot] to one another and give gifts to the poor [matanot l’evyonim].
Talmud Megilla 7a
Rav Yosef taught: "and send portions to one another," this means two portions to one person, "and gifts to the poor," this means, two gifts to two poor people.
Abaye bar Avin and Rabbi Hanina bar Avin exchanged their [Purim] feasts with each other.
[Rashi: one made the meal one year, the other the next: see Orach Hayyim 695, this implies that it is better to eat with another person, to increase the joy of the meal. Another interpretation: they exchanged the food for the feasts: this implies that it is possible to fulfill two mitzvot simultaneously, the one of the Purim feast and the one of sending portions: see Rambam Hilchot Megilla 2:15]
Talmud Megilla 11a
And Rabbi Hanina said: [he was called Achashverosh] because everyone became poor in his time, as it is said, "And King Achashverosh levied taxes." [Esther 10:1]
Rambam (Maimonides} Mishneh Tora, Hilchot Yom Tov 6:18
When a person eats and drinks [in celebration of a holiday], he is obligated to feed converts, orphans, widows, and others who are destitute and poor. In contrast, a person who locks the gates of his courtyard and eats and drinks with his children and his wife, without feeding the poor and embittered, is [not indulging in] rejoicing associated with a mitzvah, but rather the rejoicing of his gut.
[translation Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, Moznaim Publishers 1993]
Rambam Mishneh Tora, Hilchot Megilla 2:15, 2:16, 2:17
Mishneh Berura 529:17
paraphrase by R. Eliyahu Touger: in addition to inviting guests, a collection should be made before the holiday to provide for the holiday meals of poor people who are too embarrassed to ask for hospitality.
Also please see:
Esther: A Breslov commentary on the Megillah, compiled and adapted by Rabbi Yehoshua Starret (Breslov Research Institute, 1992)
In particular, the section entitled "Insanity," pp. 10-12, which comes to the idea that on Purim we demonstrate our equality, but employs a different line of argument than the one I have used here. It ends: "So on Purim we exchange courses of food with one another to show that we are all equal. To those who have nothing we also give, so that they too should know they are equal."
Articles on the Web:
Rabbi Moshe Taragin on the Halacha of Mishloach Manot:
http://www.vbm-torah.org/purim/22mishlo.htm
The other time we are commended specifically to give money to the poor for the sake of holiday food needs, is maot chittim for Pesach matza. We should start thinking about this mitzva by shabbat shekalim - anyway it’s good to start learning the hilchot for Pesach on Purim, if not before. Here is a wonderful article from the RIETS website:
Mishloach manot/maot chittim/ha lachma anya/shir hashirim
http://www.yu.edu/riets/torah/halacha/kahn1.html
After I had composed the thoughts I have written here, I found this article by Rabbi Mordechai Willig which makes an even stronger case for a theme of unity amongst all Jews in the holiday of Purim:
Purim the holiday of giving
http://www.torahweb.org/torah/1999/purim_ramu.htm
Another beautiful article on Gifts to the Poor (from the OU website):
http://www.ou.org/chagim/purim/matonot.htm
