How Many Mishloach Manot?

The first year I gave out Mishloach Manot, I was with my good friend, who knew no more than I did about what we were supposed to do.

We understood that we were supposed to give two food items of different "brachot," blessings via an intermediary. I don't quite remember how we learned this. But we were off to some sort of Purim event with our youth director, and just the three of us were in the car. So we each had a fruit and something else and delivered to him for each other and asked him to do the same for us. He thought we were nuts, and he didn't bother explaining how it was supposed to be done. That must have been over forty years ago.

Over the years OK, decades, I learned that nobody quite does it like that.

When my kids were home, I'd pull all-nighters trying to bake rolls and cakes and cookies and prepare all sorts of goodies. Now I don't. I certainly don't survive those all-nighters any more. And I buy everything, except the vegetable soup I make for us and a good friend, whose kids insist that
"It's not Purim without Batya's vegetable soup."

Since the house emptied out, we just give a few "Mishloach Manot," and in recent years Keren Yehuda, founded in memory of Yehuda Shoham, HaYa"D, the infant killed after Arab terrorists threw a very large rock on the car in which he was traveling, has a Purim fundraising campaign. We give them a certain amount of money and our name goes on gifts to everyone who lives in Shiloh.

We have two days of Purim here, which means lots of junk food. At least some people have begun giving out healthy stuff.