I've heard many people talking about making sure you include two מינים, apostates, in your Mishloach Manot gifts on Purim.
Why is it important to include two apostates in your gifts to friends, and how does that improve the gift?
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3Highly related: judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/6305/heresy-on-purim– ScimonsterFeb 26, 2018 at 21:17
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1Even more related: judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/80250/…– ezraFeb 26, 2018 at 21:48
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Pretty sure the first one is more related, actually.– ChaimFeb 26, 2018 at 23:21
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@Chaim What I mean is that it's another related question– ezraFeb 27, 2018 at 3:39
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Well, you don't want to keep them around! Pass 'em on....– GaryFeb 27, 2018 at 13:10
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6 Answers
You're going to want to include an אפיקורוס or two, as Epicureans can instruct your beneficiaries how to enjoy their shalach manos, despite the fact that all you gave them was a pretzel and a peanut.
Rambam teaches in Hilchot Megillah 2:18:
כל ספרי הנביאים וכל הכתובים עתידין ליבטל לימות המשיח חוץ ממגילת אסתר והרי היא קיימת כחמישה חומשי תורה וכהלכות של תורה שבעל פה שאינן בטילין לעולם
All Prophetic Books and the Sacred Writings will cease [to be recited in public] during the messianic era except the Book of Esther. It will continue to exist just as the Five Books of the Torah and the laws of the Oral Torah that will never cease.
(Translation from Sefaria.org)
In order to remember that Megillat Esther will never cease (become batel, in the language of the Rambam) our Sages ruled that one must send a package containing two apostates to his friend on Purim.
As R. Yehudah teaches in Menachot 22b:
מין במינו אינו בטל
One apostate together with another apostate never become batel.
(Translation not from Sefaria.org)
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From the wording of מין במינו though it’s important that they follow the same heretical beliefs - otherwise it would just be מין ומין.– DonielFFeb 28, 2018 at 15:50
All Rabbinic decrees were made for the mode, so we want to send the median of the amount of means.
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Just to clarify, the median of [1,2,3] (three types of Pythagorean means - AM, GM, HM) is two– LeitzFeb 26, 2018 at 23:45
Having heretics in your mishloach manot is extremely important, because, inevitably, almost every mishloach manot package includes hamentashen.
Just about everyone who receives these hamentashen believes that they are triangular cookies. In fact, they are not triangular. If you've baked hamentashen correctly, you actually take a circle and pinch three arcs together towards the middle. So, while the baking process might flatten or stretch the dough a bit, it may look like the sides are straight. But, they aren't. They still have a slight curve, so they can't be triangles. They're arcs.
The heretics actually know the truth about the hamentash shape, because they are the only ones brave enough to go against the popular belief.
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For shame!!! 3 arcs is exactly how you make a triangle from a circle. You, an expert in baking and bakery, should know this– SAHMay 24, 2018 at 5:38
Apostates have a salty taste (in contrast to tzaddikim, who have a sweet taste, and beinonim, who have a sharp taste). Traditionally, their inclusion in shaloch manos in double measure is done deliberately to show that we do not hold by any requirement that the two minim be from two different basic tastes.
But even more basically, you have mistranslated מינים. The correct translation is minions. It is well established that only one minion is necessary for Avodas H' in the majority of cases. The same goes for shaloch manos. Including two minions by custom is therefore either an unnecessary stringency bordering on מחזי כיוהרא, or a dangerous innovation bordering on apostasy.
Yom Kippur is a day like Purim, so just as we don't sleep on Yom Kippur, we don't sleep on Purim, and we want one Heretic to wake the other one up.