Unity through the inner point

ומצות משלוח מנות נראה לבוא לאהבת ישראל.

The mitzvah of mishloach manos (sending portions) appears to come for the sake of ahavas Yisrael (love of fellow Jews).

The Sefas Emes explains the Purim mitzvah of sending gifts of food as a means of awakening love among Bnei Yisrael.

שכ' איש יהודי ובמד' יחידי כו'.

For it is written "a Jewish man" (ish Yehudi), and the Midrash reads it as "a singular one" (yechidi), etc.

Mordechai is called ish Yehudi, which the Midrash links to yechidi — "singular" or "unified" — hinting at the theme of oneness that underlies the day.

דאיתא ואהבת לרעך כמוך כלל גדול בתורה.

For it is taught: "And you shall love your fellow as yourself" (Vayikra 19:18) is a great principle of the Torah (Yerushalmi Nedarim 9:4).

The Sefas Emes invokes Rabbi Akiva's teaching that loving one's fellow is the great klal of the Torah, and now explains why.

הפי' כשאדם דבוק בנקודה חיות הפנימיות ושם כל בני ישראל אחד.

The meaning is that when a person is attached to the inner point of life-force, there all of Bnei Yisrael are one.

At the level of the inner nekudah — the innermost point of life — all Jews share a single source and are literally one. Loving one's fellow flows naturally from being connected there.

ממילא אוהב לרעהו ג"כ.

Consequently he loves his fellow as well.

Once a person is rooted in that shared inner point, love of his fellow follows automatically, for the other is not truly separate from himself.

וזה עצמו מ"ש רש"י רעך הקב"ה ע"ש שהכל אחד כנ"ל.

And this itself is what Rashi said, that "your fellow" (re'acha) refers to Hashem — see there — for all is one, as above.

Rashi's reading that "your fellow" alludes to Hashem fits perfectly: at the inner point, the fellow Jew, oneself, and Hashem are all bound together as one.

ומרדכי הי' כלל כל ישראל.

And Mordechai was the collective of all Bnei Yisrael.

Mordechai, the ish Yehudi/yechidi, embodied the unified root-soul of the entire nation.

כי ע"י אהבה שנעשה אחד. יכול לגרום זכותו על כל ישראל.

For through the love by which they become one, his merit can be brought to bear upon all of Bnei Yisrael.

Because love unites the people into one body, Mordechai's individual merit could extend protection and salvation to the whole nation — as happened in the Purim miracle.

ויהודי נק' יחידי כנ"ל. שדבוק בנקודה חיות ששם מקום האחדות.

And a Yehudi is called "singular," as above — for he is attached to the inner point of life, which is the place of unity.

A Jew is "singular/unified" precisely because he is bound to the inner nekudah, the one place where all of Bnei Yisrael, and Hashem, are united.

וכן כתיב ועמוד ע"נ לשון יחיד.

And so it is written "and a pillar of seventy souls" (ammud shiv'im nefesh) — in the singular [nefesh, not nefashos].

The seventy souls of Yaakov's family who descended to Mitzrayim are called nefesh in the singular, signaling that they too formed a single unified entity.

כמ"ש רש"י על ע' נפש שעובדין לה' אחד ע"ש

As Rashi explains regarding the seventy souls, that they served the one Hashem — see there.

Rashi notes the singular form teaches that the seventy were unified in serving the one Hashem; their unity flowed from their shared bond to the One.

[וכ"כ אא"ז מוז"ל ע"פ ויחן נגד ההר שהאחדות הכנה לקבלת התורה. וכמו כן אז הי' קבלת התורה ]:

[And so too my grandfather, my teacher, of blessed memory, said on the verse "and he encamped (vayichan) opposite the mountain" — that unity is the preparation for receiving the Torah; and likewise then [on Purim] there was a [re]acceptance of the Torah.]

Rashi notes vayichan is singular — "as one man with one heart" — at Har Sinai, teaching that achdus is the prerequisite for Kabbalas HaTorah. Since Purim too brought a renewed acceptance of the Torah ("kiymu v'kiblu"), it likewise required and expressed the unity of Bnei Yisrael, which mishloach manos comes to foster.

Summary: Mishloach manos awakens ahavas Yisrael, which flows from being bound to the inner point of life where all Bnei Yisrael — and Hashem — are one; Mordechai the "singular Jew" embodied this unity, and just as achdus was the preparation for receiving the Torah at Sinai, so the renewed acceptance of Torah on Purim rests upon the unity of the nation.