When One Is Lax About Amen, His Tefillos Are Not Heard
In his sefer, Vavei Ha’amudim (Amud Ha’avodah Ch. 10:34), Rav Shabsai Sheftel Horowitz wrote that someone who says tefillos and other requests during Chazaras Hashatz instead of listening to the brachos and answering amen to the chazzan, not only will his tefillos said at that time not be answered, he also loses what he achieved in the whispered tefillah that he davened with the tzibbur. He writes:
“I often protest about this to those people who daven all kinds of techinos and bakashos while the shaliach tzibbur is repeating the Shemoneh Esreh. Because surely what they ask then will not be given to them, and what they do have will be taken from them. I want to say that it is agreed by all the poskim that when a shaliach tzibbur repeats the Shemoneh Esreh, the tzibbur should be quiet and answer amen and have kavanah on the brachos of the chazzan. One who is not careful about this will also have what he has in hand taken away, and what he asked the rest of the time is not given to him.”
Tefillah That Comes Through a Sin
The words of the Vavei Ha’amudim seem to need explanation: It is understood that the tefillah that a person davens during Chazaras Hashatz instead of answering amen isn’t answered. This is because a tefillah said in a prohibited way is like a “mitzvah haba’ah b’aveirah,” and one is not yotzei the obligation of the mitzvah. As sefer Orchos Yosher (Tefillah, Ketzas Dinei Tefillah 28) writes: “One must not speak during the Chazaras Hashatz, even to say prayers of supplication or to learn (Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 124:17). And one who learns or reads the parashah during Chazaras Hashatz or Kaddish, not only will not receive a reward, he will also receive a punishment for this...And Torah like this cannot succeed (see Bamidbar Rabbah 22:7) ...And it is possible that even bedieved he was not yotzei the Shnayim Mikra, because it is a mitzvah haba’ah b’aveirah.”
But what he says that one who davens in the middle of Chazaras Hashatz loses even what he achieved in the tefillah that he did daven properly, is a new din that needs explanation. Can it be that because he does not answer amen after the shatz he should lose also what he attained in the whispered Shemoneh Esreh?
The Whispered Tefillah Depends on Answering Amen
Sefer Inyano Shel Yom (Moadim Ch. 31) explained according to a chiddush of the Eretz Tzvi (22) the reason that the takanah of Chazal that the shatz should repeat the tefillah is practiced today as well, even though there is no one who is yotzei his obligation of tefillah this way. This is because there is another reason for this takanah: completing the amen to the brachos of tefillah.
The Rema rules (Orach Chaim 167 2) that answering amen after the brachah is part of the brachah, and therefore, the mevarech should have in mind to be yotzei his obligation to answer amen from the oneh amen after his brachah. In order to complete the brachos of tefillah recited in a whisper with amen, it was instituted that the shatz should repeat the tefillah and amen should be answered after his brachos.
Now we can explain that the Vavei Ha’amudim holds that the brachos of the whispered tefillah are completed by answering amen after Chazaras Hashatz, and are considered one tefillah. Therefore, even someone who had kavanah properly in the tefillah of the quiet Shemoneh Esreh, his tefillah is only complete if he answers amen to Chazaras Hashatz, and if he does not, he loses even that whispered tefillah.
