Moshe W. experienced wondrous Hasghachah pratis in the merit of answering amen. Following is his story, as brought in the Hashgachah Pratis pamphlet (Re’eh 5780):
In my parents’ home, we were very strict about answering amen. My mother, shetichyeh, absorbed this practice from her parents, and she instilled it in us, her children, at every opportunity. My mother often enjoyed telling her grandchildren and grandchildren, kein yirbu, that one of the first words that their parents taught them to say was the word ‘amen.” I, their youngest child, was also raised this way, and I try to convey the tradition to my children, among other ways by recounting this story that happened to me when I was a child.
That morning, the regular rotation between my siblings who would take me to preschool, got messed up. My sister was supposed to take me, but for some reason, she mistakenly thought it was a different sister’s turn. In addition, everyone had gotten up late that day. So with the pressure and confusion that characterize the daily routine of getting out to school, I remained sleeping peacefully in my bed.
My mother, who obviously wasn’t aware of the fact that I was still sleeping, also got ready to leave the house. But suddenly, she turned back, filled a cup with water, and began to make the brachah with kavanah: “Baruch Atah... shehakol nihiyeh bidvaro.”
She just about put the cup to her lips and from the other side of the house she heard a thin voice reply, “Amen!”
Apparently, I had just woken up, and when I heard my mother’s brachah, I answered amen right away, as she’d taught me to do at a very early age.
At first, she was alarmed. She wasn’t expecting anyone to be home at this hour – least of all me. And it quickly dawned on her that Moishe’le, her little two-year-old, had almost been left alone at home!
She hurried to my room and gave me a warm hug, with tears of relief flooding her eyes.
Just the thought of what could have happened if not...She shuddered. A little rambunctious boy who loved to climb up and look at the street from the window, and had been caught doing so numerous times...This child would have been left alone at home for hours, with the windows open and unbarred – it would have been a recipe for disaster, R”l.
We can just imagine what would have happened if she would not have heard my amen. We can imagine what would have happened if she would not have ingrained in us the halachah stated in the Rema (Orach Chaim 124 7): “And he should teach his young children to answer amen, because as soon as a child answers amen, he has a share in Olam Haba.”
