This Shabbos, we have a wonderful opportunity to delve – even a bit – into the meaning of answering amen, its tremendous power and its lofty effects. Why?! Because one of the leading commentators on the Mikra, Rabbeinu Bechayei, expounded on the lofty virtue of answering amen specifically in this parashah, in his commentary on the passuk (Shemos 14:31): “Vayir’u ha’am es Hashem vaya’aminu b’Hashem uveMoshe avdo.” In his words, Rabbeinu Bechayei explains the meaning of the word amen in halachah, agadah, and in Toras HaSod, and he also details the reward of one who is strict to answer amen according to halachah, and the punishment of one who chalilah, does not take heart to do this.
If we look Heavenward in the darkness of night, we can discern tens of thousands of tiny stars, some of which are hardly seen. These stars appear small to us because they are light years away, but there is no one who will cast doubt on the fact that they are entire worlds in and of themselves.
Rabbeinu Bechayei in this parashah reveals to us that amen is exactly the same. In our eyes, it appears small and minute, but On High, it is large and so significant that entire worlds are contingent upon it, as Chazal testify (Devarim Rabbah 7:4): “There is nothing greater before HaKadosh Baruch Hu than the amen that Am Yisrael reply.”
I had the thought that Rabbeinu Bechayei had special kavanah when choosing specifically this passuk of “Vaya’aminu b’Hashem uveMoshe avdo” of all the pesukim in the Torah that describe emunah to offer his explanation on the tremendous power of the virtue of amen. This is because one who is strict to answer amen strengthens both his emunah in Hashem, as he joins as a second witness to the testimony of the mevarech who is coronating the Creator, as Rabbeinu Bechayei wrote, and the emunah in “Moshe avdo” – in the sages of the generations, who work through the power of Moshe Rabbeinu, and who established for us to answer amen, and warned us to utter it according to halachah.
I will add that the fact that Rabbeinu Bechayei’s words are written on the passuk that we say each morning ahead of Shiras Hayam is a daily reminder for us about the importance of answering amen, and about the tremendous reward that a person who is strict to answer it properly acquires for himself.
Let us heed the words of Chazal, and multiply our answering of amen, let us rise each morning to answer amen after the mevarchim Birchos Hashachar in shul, and thus we will increase kavod Shamayim in the world, and we will firmly establish our emunah in the Creator – and even merit great reward for this.
Good Shabbos
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
ת.ד 102 בני ברק | פקס : 03-5055919
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