Aseres Yemei Teshuvah
Teshuvah for Not Answering Amen
One of the obstacles for one seeking to repent is his natural focus on the sins that in his eyes appear to be very significant, and ignoring the sins that in his eyes seem minor (see Rambam, Teshuvah 4 4). An example of this is the sin of being lax about answering amen, as some perceive this as being a minor sin.
But we have to know that considering not answering amen a minor sin is a mistake. The holy Zohar in this parashah (Vayeilech 285 2) expounds on the punishment of one who is lax about answering amen, and as a result, the mekubal Rabi Meir Hakohein Papirash wrote that one should do “teshuvah gedolah” for this sin. He wrote (Ohr Hayashar 7:18-19):
“One needs teshuvah gedolah for not answering amen – and even if he only did not answer one time – meaning when he heard a brachah even for a fruit, or that his friend made a brachah on a mitzvah, and certainly in the tefillah of the sha”tz...and in Viduy of Ashmanu that he says each day he should shed tears for those amens that he did not answer.”
Teshuvas Nefesh
Some 350 years ago, in the year 5437, a kuntress was published in Lublin entitled Teshuvas Nefesh, and the content was a tikkun of teshuvah for someone who has missed answering even one amen. The identity of the author is not known because he concealed his identity and signed: Teshuvas Nefesh ben Dovid of the kehillah of Vogliev. Only one single copy of this kuntress survived, and it is in the library at Oxford University, and even that copy is only a partial one. Even if it is hard to follow the tikkun teshuvah that the author lays out, from the few pages that remain of this compilation, we can derive how serious the sin of not answering amen is, to the extent that the loss of even one amen requires a special tikkun. (Kesser Meluchah p. 47)
Amen – The Beginning of Teshuvah
The Rosh Yeshivah Harav Aharon Kotler would say that the beginning of teshuvah needs to be specifically with the good actions that we already do – by being strict to do them properly. This is possible by paying a bit of attention, especially to things that a person tends to trample with his heel and be lax about, even though they are very serious. For example, answering amen: there are so many halachos about this, and everyone knows how strict Chazal are (Brachos 47a) about answering amen improperly, and it is possible to understand from this how serious is the sin of one who completely neglects answering amen. (Mishnas Rav Aharon, Ma’amarim Vol. II p. 80)
Amen Opens the Gates of Teshuvah
Harav Shlomo of Karlin said regarding the words of Chazal (Shabbos 119b) that “anyone who answers amen with all his strength has the gates of Gan Eden opened for him,” that the word “poschim,” open in the present tense, because the “gates of Gan Eden” are the gates of teshuvah, and Chazal taught us that in reward for answering amen with all his might, the gates of teshuvah are opened for him “and he tastes in this world the pleasure of Gan Eden and Oalm Haba.”(Bais Aharon Bereishis, Haggadah Shel Pesach, ad loc. Ha lachma anya, for Rosh Hashanah, ad loc. Kesiv veyashuv.)
In his letter to the editorial board of this publication Harav Gamliel Hakohein Rabinowitz, author of sefer Gam Ani Odecha, alluded to the fact that amen opens the gates of teshuvah because the acronym of the words that open the brachah of teshuvah in Shemoneh Esreh סלח לנו אבינו are numerically equivalent to amen.
Complete Teshuvah in the Merit of Answering Amen
The Shomer Emunim explained the passuk “shuvah Yisrael ad Hashem Elokecha ki kashalta b’avonecha” as follows: “שובה” is an acronym ” is anברוך הוא וברוך שמו. ”ישראל for .לענות אמן יהא שמיה רבא acronym for And the Navi alludes that by being strict to answer amen, baruch Hu ubaruch Shemo and yehei Shemei Rabba, then you will draw down a great light that can reach, with your teshuvah “ad Hashem Elokecha.”
That is also why the Navi calls (Hoshea 14:3): “Kechu imachem devarim veshuvu el Hashem.” “Kechu imachem” to your treasuries, “devarim” words of kedushah, that by being strict to say them aloud and with kavanah, the gates of teshuvah will be opened before you and “veshuvu el Hashem.”
The Shomer Emunim writes very moving words on this: “If a person will be careful about all the details of amen and yehei Shemei Rabbah brought in this ma’amar (Ma’amar Pischu Shearim, in sefer Shomer Emunim), then without a doubt he will have a great tikkun nefesh, more than a few thousand fasts, without measure. And his soul will be tied to the Shoresh Ha’Elyon, and he will remove the rust and the detritus from his soul, his spirit and his neshamah.”
Shomer Emunim, Ma’amar Pischu She’arim Ch. 14
Answering Amen That Led to Repentance
The famed mashpia Rav Eliyahu Roth, the close confidant of Harav Shlomo of Zhvill, would constantly galvanize his listeners about the importance of saying Birchos Hanehenin aloud. In one of this shmuessen, he spoke of a Yid who did teshuvah because of this practice:
Reb Eliyahu regularly went each day to a small kiosk near his home to have a drink and to make a Shehakol in a loud voice to the seller, a Jew who was far from Torah and mitzvos. After some time of doing so, the seller made a cheshbon hanefesh: If such an important Jew comes here each day and makes a brachah out loud, then it is not fitting that I should stand here with a bare head and I shouldn’t answer amen. He obtained a yarmulke for himself, and since then, whenever Reb Eliyahu made the brachah, he covered his head and answered amen. This practice had a great influence on his soul, and it didn’t take too long before he did teshuvah sheleimah. So there we have an example, Rav Eliyahu concluded, that by saying a brachah aloud we can change a Jew’s life completely and bring him closer to Hashem.
Ish Chassid Hayah [Biography of Rav Eliyahu Roth] p. 230
