Matanos L’Evyonim: Bringing Purim Joy to Those in Need
Of the four mitzvos of Purim, this is the one that asks us to put someone else’s joy before our own. Before we sit down to our seudah, before we settle into the happiness of the day, we are told to think first about those who do not have enough. Matanos l’evyonim teaches that simchah is not complete when it remains private. The joy of Purim reaches its fullest expression when it is used to lift up someone in need and make their day brighter too. This mitzvah teaches us something invaluable about what Jewish joy is meant to be.
We at Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities have watched for generations how the simplest envelope, pressed into the right hand at the right hour, can change a poor family’s entire Purim. The Torah did not ask us merely to feel happy on Purim; it asked us to make sure someone else could be happy too.
Understanding Matanos L’Evyonim
Matanos l’evyonim (literally “gifts to the destitute”) is one of the four obligations of Purim, alongside reading the Megillah, the festive seudah, and mishloach manos (sending portions of food to friends). Its source is explicit in the Megillah itself, where the days of Purim are established as days of “feasting and gladness, and sending portions to one another, and gifts to the poor” (Esther 9:22). The Gemara in Megillah 7a derives from this verse that one is obligated to give a minimum of two gifts to two poor people — one gift to each — on the day of Purim.Among the Purim mitzvos, matanos la’evyonim is given special emphasis in the halachic sources, and Rambam says one should prioritize it over expanding the seudah or mishloach manot.
Both men and women are obligated, and the obligation falls on each individual, not merely on the household as a unit. It belongs to the day of the fourteenth of Adar (or the fifteenth in a walled city such as Yerushalayim), and within the seder of the Purim mitzvos it occupies a unique place: it is the only one of the four that exists entirely for the sake of someone else’s need.
The History and Origins of Matanos L’Evyonim
The mitzvah was instituted as part of the establishment of Purim itself by Mordechai and Esther, in the wake of the deliverance from Haman’s decree. The verse in the Megillah is not a description of what the Jews happened to do in their relief at the current time; it is the language by which the obligation was fixed for all generations. Mordechai, recording the events for posterity, framed the eternal observance of Purim around two acts of giving — mishloach manos between equals and matanos l’evyonim downward to the poor — so that the salvation of the whole people would be re-enacted each year through the binding of Jew to Jew.
The poskim drew a careful distinction between these two giving mitzvos. Mishloach manos serves to deepen friendship and unity among Jews who already have; matanos l’evyonim serves the one who has not. Because of this, the halacha treats the recipient of matanos l’evyonim differently: where ordinary tzedakah requires us to investigate that a recipient is truly needy, on Purim the Shulchan Aruch rules that we do not scrutinize — every hand that is stretched out is given to (Orach Chaim 694:3). The Rishonim and Acharonim who shaped today’s practice, among them the Tur and the Rema, preserved this openhandedness as the defining texture of the day. This is the transmitted mesorah of Purim: a single day on which the normal carefulness of charity yields to a deliberate, joyful generosity.
How the Mitzvah Is Fulfilled
The mechanics of matanos l’evyonim are precise, and getting them right is what separates a fulfilled mitzvah from a well-intentioned gesture.
Who is obligated. Every adult Jew, man and woman alike, is personally obligated. Practices vary as to whether a married woman gives on her own behalf or fulfills the mitzvah through her household, and one should follow one’s family custom or rav.
The minimum. One must give at least two gifts to two different poor people — one gift apiece — so that the obligation cannot be discharged by giving twice to a single person. The gift may be money or food; the common practice is money, since it allows the recipient to use it for whatever the day requires.
How much. While the basic texts do not specify a fixed amount, some later authorities are cited as requiring or recommending enough for a small meal, and many therefore give more than a token sum.
To whom. The recipient must be a genuine poor person — an evyon, one who lacks. Because we do not investigate on Purim, the practical method most people use is to give through a reliable gabbai tzedakah or a trusted organization that distributes to the poor on Purim day itself, ensuring the gift reaches a true evyon and arrives in time.
When. This is the detail most often missed: the gifts must be given on Purim day. Money set aside or pledged before Purim, or given after the day has passed, does not fulfill the mitzvah unless it actually reaches the poor person on the day. When giving through an organization, the funds must be designated and distributable so that they reach evyonim on the fourteenth (or fifteenth) of Adar. This is precisely why a charity that already operates on the ground in Eretz Yisroel can serve the mitzvah: the gift can be placed in a poor family’s hands on Purim itself.
What Matanos L’Evyonim Means: A Deeper Look
The arc of this mitzvah moves from a verse, to a number, to a ruling about priorities, and finally to a vision of where Hashem is most readily found. Four ideas carry its weight.
“Umatanos la’evyonim” — and gifts to the poor (Esther 9:22). The Megillah lists four behaviors of the day, but only two are framed as giving, and only one of those is directed downward. The salvation of the Jewish people came specifically because they gathered as one — as Esther charged the Jews of Shushan, “lech k’nos es kol haYehudim” (Esther 4:16) — and the giving mitzvos of Purim are the annual re-creation of that unity. For the reader, this reframes the gift: it is not charity tacked onto a holiday but the very mechanism by which we re-enter the unity that saved us. When you give on Purim, you are not interrupting the celebration; you are completing it.
“Shtei matanos lishnei aniyim” — two gifts to two poor people. The plural is deliberate. A single grand gift to one person would be generous, but the halacha insists on two recipients, because the mitzvah is measured not only by what leaves your hand but by how many hearts it reaches. The Gemara’s framing teaches a quiet discipline: spread the joy. Two gifts means two human beings remembered, not a single requirement discharged, on a day when it is easy to be carried away by our own simchah.
“Ein m’dakdekin b’maos Purim” — we do not scrutinize the Purim gifts. Every other day of the year, responsible tzedakah requires verification. On Purim, the halacha suspends that. The deeper meaning is startling: for one day, the Torah asks us to give the way Hashem gives to us — without first auditing whether we have earned it. Purim’s joy comes from a salvation that was hidden inside apparent abandonment, and the open hand on Purim mirrors that hidden chesed. For the reader who is cautious by nature, this is permission, once a year, to err on the side of generosity rather than caution.
“Mutav l’harbos b’matanos la’evyonim” — better to increase the gifts to the poor (Rambam, Hilchos Megillah 2:17). Here the Rambam delivers the sentence around which the whole mitzvah turns. It is better, he writes, to spend more on matanos l’evyonim than on one’s own seudah or on mishloach manos, “for there is no greater and more glorious joy than gladdening the hearts of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the converts” — and one who gladdens the hearts of these unfortunate ones is likened to the Shechinah. The life connection is direct and bracing: the Rambam is telling you that the holiest joy available to you on Purim is not on your own table. It is in the home you will never see, lifted by a gift you gave before lunch.
The Halacha and Its Priority
Where does matanos l’evyonim rank among the mitzvos of the day, and against the ordinary obligations of tzedakah? The Rambam answers in Hilchos Megillah (2:17): given limited means, one should expand the gifts to the poor rather than the personal feast or the portions sent to friends. The din is the minimum — two gifts to two poor people on the day — but the Rambam directs us well past the minimum, ranking the upward reach of the seudah below the downward reach of the gift.
Several edge cases recur in practice and deserve a clear answer. May one fulfill the mitzvah with ma’aser money? Many poskim hold that the basic obligation of matanos l’evyonim, being a personal chiyuv, should ideally come from one’s own funds rather than from ma’aser, while amounts given beyond the obligation may be treated differently (see Magen Avraham, Orach Chaim 694:1). May the gift be food rather than cash? It may, though cash is preferred for the recipient’s flexibility. What if the only poor people available are reached through a fund? That is not only permissible but, for most people today, the most reliable way to ensure the gift lands on the day and in a true evyon’s hand. The distinction the halacha asks us to keep clear is between the fixed din — two gifts, two poor people, on Purim day — and the widespread minhag of giving generously beyond it, which is hidur mitzvah rather than obligation.
The Spiritual Power of Tefillah and Tzedakah
The Gemara in Bava Basra (10a) teaches that tzedakah averts the severity of a decree, and Shlomo HaMelech writes that “tzedakah tatzil mimaves” — charity rescues from death (Mishlei 10:2). On Purim, this is not abstract. The entire day commemorates a decree that was averted, a sentence of death overturned, and the Jewish people understood in that moment that their unity and their giving were bound up with their survival. Tefillah opens the gates; tzedakah creates the zechus that sweetens the judgment behind them. The two are halves of a single avodah, and Purim fuses them: we read of the salvation, we feast in gratitude, and then we give, so that the gratitude has somewhere to go.
This is the work to which Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities has been devoted since 1799, upholding the tzaddik’s legacy to intercede in Heaven for those who give to the poor of Eretz Yisroel in his memory. To give matanos l’evyonim through RMBH is to place your Purim gift directly into the hands of needy families in the Holy Land on the day itself — turning your own simchah into theirs, and binding your name to the chain of Jewish generosity that the Megillah set in motion. The journey of Purim does not end at your table; it extends to someone else’s home.
About Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities
Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities, founded in 1799, is one of the oldest and most trusted tzedakah organizations serving the poor of Eretz Yisroel, upholding Rabbi Meir Baal Haness’s legacy that those who give to the needy in his memory find heavenly intercession in their time of need.
Today it distributes funds to Torah scholars, widows, orphans, and needy families throughout Eretz Yisroel — an unbroken chain of compassion and a zechus for the giver and their family. On Purim, that infrastructure becomes the means by which a gift given anywhere in the world reaches a poor family in the Land on the day the mitzvah lives.
Support the Mission of Rabbi Meir Baal Haness Charities
Frequently Asked Questions About Matanos L’Evyonim
Matanos l'evyonim is the Purim obligation to give gifts to the poor, one of the four mitzvos of the day along with the Megillah, the seudah, and mishloach manos. Its source is the verse in the Megillah (Esther 9:22) that establishes Purim as days of gladness, of sending portions to one another, and of gifts to the poor.
The minimum is two gifts to two different poor people — one gift to each. Giving twice to the same person does not fulfill the mitzvah, because the halacha measures the mitzvah by the number of needy people reached, not only the amount given.
There is no large fixed sum at the level of obligation; even a modest gift of real value to each of two poor people fulfills the basic requirement. The Rambam, however, urges giving generously, ruling that it is better to increase the gifts to the poor than to expand one's own feast (Hilchos Megillah 2:17).
On Purim day itself — the fourteenth of Adar, or the fifteenth in a walled city like Yerushalayim. Money pledged beforehand fulfills the mitzvah only if it actually reaches the poor person on the day, which is why giving through a fund that distributes to the poor of Eretz Yisroel on Purim is a reliable way to fulfill it.
Yes. Because the halacha tells us not to scrutinize recipients on Purim, and because most of us do not have two poor people at our door, giving through a trusted gabbai or organization that reaches evyonim on the day is both permitted and, for most people, the surest method. RMBH distributes to needy families in Eretz Yisroel.
Closing
Of all the obligations of Purim, this is the one that outlives the day. The Megillah will be rolled and put away, the seudah cleared, but the gift you placed in a poor family’s hand becomes part of them. Give, and let your gladness reach a home you will never see. May your matanos l’evyonim be a zechus for you and your family, and may the joy you create for the poor return to you as bracha and simchah.
