Someone shared with me an interesting incident that he witnessed. In one of the shuls of Yerushalayim, a Yid approached one of his friends who was about to recite Birchos Hashachar, and asked him to have kavanah to be motzi him with his brachos.
The friend nodded in agreement. “It happens that a person doesn’t fall asleep at night,” he thought to himself.
As usual in such a case, the mevarech paused for a moment and then began to recite the brachos aloud, slowly, one by one, and his friend answered amen to each and every brachah.
To the surprise of the mevarech, as soon as he finished his brachos, the friend who had stood and listened to the brachos and said amen then went and said all the Birchos Hashachar again, word for word. The mevarech was stunned, and after he finished answering amen, he turned to his friend, sounding a bit offended and said: “Were you trying to play a joke on me?”
“Chalilah,” his friend replied quickly. “I just felt so bad watching you standing up to say the brachos very quickly, without having someone answer amen, and I wanted to give you the zchus of complete brachos...”
Yes! When we answer amen to a brachah, aside from the merit of the mitzvah that we get, we also give the mevarech the zchus that his brachah should be complete! Moreover: The holy Zohar writes (Eikev 271 1) that the gates of Heaven open in front of a brachah that is answered with amen, and it rises to the Kisei Hakavod, and there is a declaration: ‘This is the gift that Ploni [the mevarech] has sent the king.’ In other words, despite that the special virtue of the brachah is given to it only because of the amen that the listener answered, the brachah is still attributed to the mevarech, and it is announced as a gift that he sent the king.
We can say that this is what the passuk alludes to (Malachi 6:16): “Az nidberu yirei Hashem ish el re’iehu vayakshev Hashem veyishma.” The brachos of the yirei Hashem are spoken and they bless one another so that their brachos should be completed with amen, and that is very wanted and accepted on High, and it is regarding this that the promise is made “And Hashem hears and listens” because the brachah reaches the Kisei Hakavod.
It makes sense to say that this is another reason for the words of Rabbi Yosi that “the one who answers amen is greater than the mevarech” (Brachos 53b). The mevarech fills his obligation and does a mitzvah that is attributed only to his merit, while the one who answers amen, aside for his personal obligation, also completes the brachah of the mevarech and does a deed that is attributed also to the merit of the mevarech.
It’s important to know that even if the mevarech is not concerned by the fact that his brachah is not complete, that does not exempt us from offering ourselves to answer amen to his brachos. If brachos answered by amen are so beloved and wanted by HaKadosh Baruch Hu, then it behooves us to make the effort to present Him with those complete brachos!
How great, therefore, is the zchus of those who rise early to come to shul to answer amen after mevarchim. In their merit, tens of thousands of complete brachos that are accepted before the Kisei Hakavod with love rise up, and masses of mevarchim are remembered for good and for brachah, and without doubt are granted yeshuos and compassion.
Good Shabbos
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
