The scene is captivating, emotional, and sent a tremor through the heart of any Yid, even though it repeats itself each morning for decades. It’s early morning, the Pinsk Karlin shul in Yerushalayim. At the entrance to the shul sits a venerable looking Yid; on the table in front of him is a small velvet satchel, similar to a tefillin bag, but there are two words embroidered on the front [in Hebrew]: “Candy Man.”
Reb Mordechai Shlomo Shaffer, shlita, is the name of the chassid sitting at the table. He is a distinguished resident of Yerushalayim, who has been wearing the crown of amen for many years. Each morning, he dedicates a lot of time to say amen after Birchos Hashachar of many Yidden from across the spectrum, with patience, slowly and with a heartwarming smile that invites them to come back tomorrow morning, to merit to say the brachos for him yet again.
Rabbi Shaffer, shlita, sees this as his spiritual life mission and he invests energy not only in answering amen each day, but also in learning the halachos and studying the halachic sugyos relating to answering amen. He is a role model for many for how an “amen Yid” looks.
Reb Mordechai, what brought you to dedicate yourself to this mitzvah and to be mehader so much in answering amen?
Reb Mordechai smiles, and then shifts his gaze, as if he is flashing back decades in time:
“The truth is it began in my childhood. When I was a little boy, there were Yidden in our shul, chassidim and elders from the previous generation, and people stood in line to recite Birchos Hashachar, and they answered amen and right after that, they would give out a small candy, a tzukerel, to anyone who recited Birchos Hashachar bechavrusa for them. This made a deep impression on me, and when I grew older, I decided that I’m going to follow in their path, and that’s how, baruch Hashem, each day I stand in shul and answer amen for dozens of mispallelim.
Over the years, Hashem has given me the zechus to learn and delve into the halachos of answering amen, and I also compiled a special kuntress with all the halachos of amen and an explanation of Birchos Hashachar.”
How do people react when you turn to them and ask them to make brachos for you?
“I don’t turn to anyone. I have a fixed place at the entrance to the shul, and right when I come, I put down my two beautiful velvet bags – my tefillin bag, and another similar one, but it says on it that I give out candies...
People come to me and ask about the candies that I keep in such an elegant bag, as if they were an object used for a mitzvah. And I pleasantly explain that the real candy is the completion that I give their brachos when I answer amen after them. But at the same time, each person who says Birchos Hashachar from me gets a small candy, in the same way that those elder chassidim did...”
I need to understand – you do this for children or adults?
“Adults, of course. There are also elderly people who come to me to say Birchos Hashachar. In addition, our bais medrash is near the Mir and our minyan starts a bit before the minyan in yeshivah, which means many bochurim from the yeshivah can come and make Birchos Hashachar for me before they go daven in yeshivah.
This is all during the week. But on Shabbos an even greater crowd joins the long line of people who get Birchos Hashachar candies at my table, and they are the youngsters of the chassidus who come to say Birchos Hashachar and to get the promised candy.”
Is there something else that causes people to come and make the brachah?
“I’ll tell you something interesting. We in Karlin have a nusach of Birchos Hashachar that is different to what is printed in the siddurim. As such, I printed the Birchos Hashachar in our nusach onto a card, and any chassid can make the brachos from the written text of our nusach. Over the years, I learned that this special page, with Birchos Hashachar in the Karliner nusach, is something that attracts many people who come to the shul and are curious to become more familiar with the nusach of our Birchos Hashachar. Ultimately, I gain from it, because then they stay to recite Birchos Hashachar for me.
Why do you think people are lax about this lofty mitzvah?
Remember that already the Gemara (Brachos 6b) explains the passuk (Tehillim 12:9): “Kerum zulus livnei adam” – “these are the things that are at the height of the world, and people are lax about them.” So already in the time of the Gemara, it was the nature of the world. The way of a person is to be lax about things that are truly important. Likewise, people are not sufficiently aware of the words of Chazal about the power of answering amen. If they
