In Conversation With Anshei Emunim
Rabbi Shalom Landsberg, shlita
K’hal Chassidei Yerushalayim shul, Beit Shemesh
Birchos hashachar k'halachah: Aloud, with kavanah, bechavrusa
It is with awe that we sit down for a conversation with the Yid who probably holds the longest-standing title of “gabbai amen” in our generation.
Rabbi Shalom Landsberg, shlita, is a gabbai amen of the most authentic kind. For decades, before the Bney Emunim revolution took hold and publicized the awareness of answering amen, Reb Shalom stood each morning in his tallis and tefillin, and answered amen to the Birchos Hashachar of many Yidden. It has been going on for many years, first in Kiryat Sanz in Yerushalayim, and more recently in Beit Shemesh.
How many years have you been serving as a gabbai amen?
The truth is, it’s hard to remember an exact date, but it’s more than fifty years that I have been zocheh to answer amen to people making Birchos Hashachar. Although I was not always a real gabbai for all those years, there were always a number of regular mispallelim who came over to me to say their brachos and merit amen.
The main time was in the beis medrash of Sanz in Kiryat Sanz, Yerushalayim, where I lived for many years. There, I merited to be a gabbai amen, baruch Hashem, and today as well, after moving to Beit Shemesh, I merit to continue this holy work of answering amen during the week in K’hal Chassidei Yerushalayim. On Shabbos, because it’s hard for me to walk, there’s a minyan in my house with my grandsons, and they also come over to me and recite Birchos Hashachar, and I answer amen and give out sweets.
Where do you get the strength and energy to dedicate time each morning to mispallelim to recite Birchos Hashachar? What brought you to value the mitzvah of answering amen so much?
I am a talmid of Yeshivas Chevron, and while I was learning there, the Rosh Yeshivah was Harav Aharon Cohen. I was very close to him. I once went with Rav Aharon to the Kosel, even before the establishment of the State, and we met Harav Ahron Roth, the Shomer Emunim. From that time, a deep bond was forged between the Rosh Yeshivah and the Shomer Emunim, and as a result, I got involved in the seforim of the Shomer Emunim. He writes extensively about answering amen to Birchos Hashachar, and about the kavanah of amen, with very special and inspiring words. Since then, I feel very connected to the inyan of amen... I began to approach mispallelim and asked them to say the brachos for me, I always had a desire that it should become more established and regular, and that people should come to say amen for me, and indeed, baruch Hashem, today I am zocheh that many people come over on their own each morning to say brachos.
How did it all begin? When did it become more official?
In the beis medrash in Kiryat Sanz, there was a group of a few Yidden who wanted to answer amen. We would spread out around the shul and say amen after the mispallelim. The minute we were a group it was all much easier. We began answering amen to one another, and soon enough, more people joined.
After many years, we received a sign from Bney Emunim, and to this day, that sign serves me well. The advantage of the sign is that even when I come to a place where I don’t usually daven, I put out the sign, and immediately people come and say the brachos for me.
When I moved to Beit Shemesh, I found in shul a Yid name Rav Zaks, a grandson of the Chofetz Chaim, zy”a, who was already a gabbai amen. The first time, I simply sat down next to him to hear the amens, and then something interesting happened. We were two gabbaim together and I’m telling you, it has an even greater virtue, because when you say the brachos for one gabbai, the mispallel can say Birchos Hashachar quietly, but when you say it in front of two, it becomes a shiur... you have to say it louder, slower, so that they should both be at the same pace, and for years, we answered amen together. Until one day, he didn’t feel well, and for now I’m doing the job myself.
Why do you think people sometimes are lax about this lofty mitzvah?
I don’t know why people are lax, but I do know one thing: the very existence of gabbaei amen in the shul increases the awareness of saying brachos and answering amen in the whole shul, even among those who do not actually come to say the brachos for us yet.
So every gabbai amen needs to know that although there are those who don’t come to say Birchos Hashachar for them, the fact that they see that there is a gabbai amen makes the matter of saying brachos with kavanah more important to them. Sometimes, without anyone even noticing, they do say the brachos aloud, so that the one standing next to them will answer amen. And that, of course, is also in the merit of the gabbai amen.
What is the way to connect the tzibbur to this age old practice of making Birchos Hashachar for someone who will answer amen?
I can share what connected me very much and helped me over the years: To read the wonderful Vechol Ma’aminim pamphlet every week. I travel each week to a place where I can get these pamphlets in our area. I think that it is unique and unlike any other publication, because it is written so well, so clearly, in a style that is suited both to a child of eight and to a Yid of my age that has already passed the age of ninety bechasdei Hashem.
How much time does this task take you each morning? How many people do you hear brachos from?
First of all, the wording of the question “how much time does it take” is not precise, because answering amen is not a task that needs to be finished... It’s a huge zechus, so it makes no difference how much time it takes. And second, I daven neitz and come early to davening, so baruch Hashem I have lots of time available to answer amen to all the mispallelim in my minyan, and from other minyanim.
