Where did the “different bracha for mishloach manos” idea come from?

Question

Rambam and Shulchan Aruch say you can send two types of meat as mishloach manos on Purim.

Yet somehow I (and many other people, apparently) were taught that the two different items have to be in two different bracha categories.

If this is a halachic folktale, does anyone know where it came from?

Answer 1

One can send two portions as there mishloach manos and there is no inyun of sending things with different brochas, which is a very common mistake as Rav Dovid Feinstein has pointed out.

See the Mishna Breurah 695:4 – where he says that the two foodstuffs for the msihloach manos that you send, can be meat and ‘other foods’. In MB 695:4:19 he says that drink is fine as another ‘other foodstuff’. Therefore, you could have meat and drink as your two food items, both having the same brocha of shehakol!

Rashi explains in the Mishna in Yoma 93B, that drinking is included in the category of eating.

Another sheilah – if you send two things of the same type, e.g. from the same chicken, a piece of dark and a piece of light.

Answer 2

I did not see this anywhere, however I think what I am going to say is true.

The Gemara in Megila 7a-7b (translation courtesy of Artscroll) says as follows:

R' Yehuda Nesiah sent to R' Oshaya the thigh of a calf born third to its mother and a bottle of wine. ... Rabbah sent with Abaye to Mari bar Mar a basket filled with dates and a cup filled with the flour of roasted wheat. ... Mari bar Mar sent back to Rabbah a basket filled with ginger and a cup filled with long peppers.

We see from the first two stories that they sent two different Brachos. Although from the final story we see that both items were the same Bracha.

I would venture to say that since the first 2 stories of Mishloach Manos were of 2 different Brachos that is where the misconception started that you need the 2 items to be 2 different Brachos.

Answer 3

The mitzvah is to have two different foods. If you make them foods of different brachas then you can be sure that they are certainly 'different' from each other even if you aren't an expert in the Shulchan Aruch. Having one be a food and one be a drink would also work (even if they are both shehakol). Meat from two different kinds of animals would also work, but meat Shalach Manos seem to be uncommon today. Whereas it might not be very clear if , for example, two different shehakol candies would fulfill the requirement to have two different foods, so why take chances?