Chazal promised that one who is strict to answer amen according to halachah will merit long days and years: “Anyone who prolongs his amen has his days and years extended” (Brachos 47a). The Baalei Hatosafos brought an allusion to this promise from the passuk in this parashah (24:1): “V’Avraham zaken ba bayamim v’Hashem beirach es Avraham bakol.” The acronym of the final letters of the words זקן בא בימים is amen, to teach that anyone who answers amen will live long.”
I always marvel to see how people invest energy and money, some more and some less, into life insurance policies, while at the same time they are lax about answering amen according to halachah, which does not require any monetary investment and all, and is very easy to do.
Moreover, the insurance cannot guarantee life for a person. Instead, it is an agreed upon and limited monetary compensation in a time of trouble. Answering amen k’halachah, in contrast, has the power to extend the life of a person in goodness and comfort, to protect him from bad, and to obviate the need for insurance.
When a person answers amen slowly – according to the psak of the Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 124 8): “And he should not answer a brief amen, but rather a slightly longer one, so that he can say ‘Kel Melech ne’eman’” – then he surrounds himself with a solid wall that protects him from all bad, as it says in Tehillim (91:7): “Yipol mitzidcha elef urevavah mi’yeminecha eilecha lo yigash.”
The Gemara in Maseches Avodah Zarah (19b) speaks about the Amora Rav Alexandri, who announced: “Who desires life?” When people gathered around him, Rav Alexandri opened a sefer Tehillim and recited the pesukim (34:13-15): “Mi ha’ish hechafetz chaim ohev yamim liros tov; netzor leshoncha meira usefasecha midaber mirmah; sur meira v’aseh tov bakesh shalom veradfeihu.”
In light of Chazal’s words, we can also read out to the tzibbur seeking an answer to the question of “who desires life?” the promise for arichus yamim that is preserved for one who prolongs their answering of amen. Life is dependent on a person’s mouth and tongue. On the one hand, he has to guard his tongue from speaking evil, and on the other hand, he must also fulfill the ‘aseh tov’ – to answer amen according to halachah. Thus, he will also fulfill the words “bakesh shalom veradfeihu,” because when a person respects his friends and completes his brachos by answering amen then he is a ‘rodef shalom’!
Let us rise early to answer amen according to halachah after Birchos Hashachar of mispallelim, and undoubtedly, we will see the fulfillment of the promise of Chazal and we will merit to do this until a ripe old age, for many good years to come, amen.
Good Shabbos
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
ת.ד 102 בני ברק | פקס : 03-5055919
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