A prior condition to answering amen according to halachah is to utter the brachah aloud. When a person makes a brachah aloud and does not murmur it with half a mouth, aside for the benefit of actually having said the brachah properly, he also gives another person the merit of the mitzvah of answering amen. In this segment, we will bring a collection of insights from gedolim through the generations regarding the great obligation to make each brachah aloud.
Stealing the Amen
From the passuk (Tehillim 103:1): “LeDovid borchi nafshi es Hashem vekol krovai [my internal organs] es Shem kodsho,” Rav Yehuda Hachassid learns: “When he makes a brachah to Hashem he needs to do so in a loud voice, because in a loud voice, all the inner organs move and are drawn after the voice.” (Sefer Chassidim 820)
Aside for the obligation to share the recital of the brachah with one’s inner organs, Rav Yehuda Hachassid and brings another reason (ibid 254) that obligates a person to make the brachah aloud: When a person makes the brachah in a whisper, he prevents the listeners from having the merit of answering amen, and this is a real sin, because he is stealing from them the mitzvah of answering amen. (Cited in Biur Halachah 139 6).
Bereishis – Make Brachos Aloud
An allusion to the obligation to recite the brachah aloud so that amen can be answered after it is brought by the Chida in his sefer Nachal Kedumim (Bereishis) in the name of the disciples of the Arizal: The first word in the Torah is בראשית and it is an acronym for “בקול רם אברך שם ה‘ תמיד”.
Sefer Yagdil Torah (Bereishis) adds that he heard from the Bais Yisrael of Ger: “The first thing that one must demand from talmidim is to recite the brachah aloud.” And he wrote that based on this we can explain that this is why the allusion to this obligation is in the word bereishis.
One Who Whispers the Brachah Is Punished
Rav Menachem Di Lonzano, author of Shtei Yados (Derech Chaim p. 30b) wrote: Just like someone who hears a brachah and refrains from answering amen is severely punished for it (see Zohar Vayeilech 285 2), likewise, one who recites the brachah in a whisper and causes that amen should not be properly answered, will also be punished with this.
Otzros Emunim Pearls on the Virtue of Answering Amen
