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Dear Parents.
I hope that your preparations for Purim are going well.
I am writing to raise awareness about a challenge that happens each year on Purim. While many of our students receive large quantities of משלוח מנות from their friends, there are some students who receive very few, if any. For these students, Purim can actually be a painful day. If we allow this to continue, the spirit of this mitzvah which is to be מרבה רעות will be negated despite our best intentions. Just as מתנות לאביונים is intended to take care of the needy amongst our people, the mitzvah of משלוח מנות is also intended for us to go beyond our regular social sphere and take care of those that might benefit on a social level. And yet, the exact opposite happens when girls are painfully left out and רעות is thereby decreased.
I would like to ask the following to help mitigate this issue. Please sit down with your daughter and encourage her to deliver to 2 to 3 girls who will likely not be on the receiving end this Purim. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk with our children about the goal of Purim which is, of course, not how much משלוח מנות we receive, but how much we give. That ultimately is the barometer of a meaningful Purim, and this paradigm offers us a wonderful opportunity to be mechanech our children. I myself have fond memories of my own mother on Purim day sending me to deliver משלוח מנות to those that were out of our social circles.
We do have programs in school where we match each student to deliver to another student which slightly helps to resolve the problem. It does not, however, do real justice. I appreciate your attention to this matter and the extra effort for this special endeavor. The world and our school will certainly be a better place.
With warm wishes for a freilichen purim,
Rabbi Frohlich
Really great idea and will do more for the “giver” than the recipient. We rarely stop to think about those outside of our social networks whether it comes to kids in school, or even adults who are marginalized in adult social networks, whether because they are newcomers in an established community or simply shy and lacking in the social skills to more fully integrate themselves and their families.
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