The Baal Haturim says in this parashah (Shemos 38:27) that the mitzvah of saying meah brachos a day was instituted to correspond to the one hundred adanim in the Mishkan.
The symbolic connection between meah brachos and the adanim in the Mishkan has been explained in various ways by baalei machshavah, and I thought perhaps to add an interesting understanding about it: As explained in this parashah (ibid 26), the 100 adanim of the Mishkan were formed from the machatzis hashekel coins that were collected from Am Yisrael. Why did the Torah establish that the terumah was “half a shekel”? Wouldn’t have it been more fitting, for the lofty goal of creating the adanim, to give a whole shekel?!
It emerges that there is a tremendous lesson here, that also relates to answering amen. The Alshich in Parashas Ki Sisa (30:13) brings in the name of Rav Shlomo Alkabetz, who wrote the piyut of Lecha Dodi, that the Torah teaches us a wondrous remez: Just like the entire shekel cannot be achieved without the donation of two Jews together, likewise, a person cannot consider himself whole unless he joins his friend.
The action during which this idea is best manifested is saying a brachah. As explained in the poskim (see Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim 167 16 and the Nosei Keilim there), the person’s brachah is not complete unless another person is there to answer amen after the mevarech. A person may stand and make brachos with kavanah and dveikus, and even to be yotzei his obligation to make a brachah, but he will not have a “brachah sheleimah” unless his brachah is answered by amen.
In light of this we can say that when Chazal instituted the 100 brachos to correspond to the 100 adanim of the Mishkan, they meant that we should also have in mind the machatzis hashekel from which the adanim were forged. Just like the entire shekel to create the adanim could only come from the donation of two Jews together, likewise the brachah that was instituted to correspond to them will only be considered shalem if two Jews join together – the mevarech and the oneh amen.
I appreciated the words of one of our readers, which have been cited here in the past, and I will quote them again, because they are dear to me. In a wonderful letter, the reader compared the brachah and answering it to a pair of shoes, and he wrote: “Shoes come in pairs; the right shoe and the left shoe. One shoe alone cannot be used if the other shoe is missing. Likewise, a brachah and amen are a pair of praises that together create a perfect brachah. A brachah said with the utmost kavanah still needs the other part that completes it – answering amen.”
We hope that our tefillos and bakashos will be fulfilled with shleimus and we express this in the nusach of the brachos: “Teshuvah sheleimah,” “geulah sheleimah,” “refuah shelemiah.” In order to merit this, we have to be strict to recite our brachos with shleimus, in the ears of someone who will answer amen to them, and of course, we should also complete the brachos of others with amen, and thus we will merit middah kenegged middah to an abundance of brachah and tovah sheleimah from Above.
Good Shabbos
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
