Birchos hashachar k'halachah: Aloud, with kavanah, bechavrusa
Pausing to Answer Amen to Birchas Kohanim
One who hears Birchas Kohanim while he is saying Krias Shema and the brachos can stop to answer amen even if he is in the middle of the perek. And some say that he can stop to answer amen even after the brachah of Asher Kidshanu Bikdushaso shel Aharon, which the Kohanim recite before their brachos. But when there is no Kohein and only the sha”tz says the brachah, then one should not stop to answer “kein yehi ratzon” even during Pesukei Dezimrah.
1. The Chareidim’s view on this is well-known (12 18, cited in Biur Halachah at beginning of 124) that the mitzvah of Birchas Kohanim includes both the obligation of the Kohanim to bless Am Yisrael and the obligation of the Yisra’elim to be blessed by the Kohanim (Biur Da’as Hachareidim, see the Hafla’ah Kesubos 23a). The Igros Moshe (Orach Chaim Vol. IV, 21, 2) proves from the words of the Shulchan Aruch in the halachos of Nesias Kapayim (128:25) that the mitzvah of Birchas Kohanim also includes the obligation of the Yisrael who receives the brachah from the Kohanim to answer amen after the brachah. In his words, this is the form of the mitzvah: The Kohanim make the brachah and the nation hears and answers amen to the brachah. For this reason, he ruled that after the three pesukim of the brachah – where the obligation to answer amen is from the Torah – one should answer even in the middle of a perek in Krias Shema and its brachos. But after the brachah of Asher Kidshanu Bikdeshusaso shel Aharon, for which the answering amen is only d’Rabbanan, one should not answer amen during Krias Shema and its brachos, like the halachah with the rest of the amens. Rav Elyashiv concurs (Vayishma Moshe Vol. II p. 27) as does the Piskei Teshvuos (128:41). See also Maaseh Ish (Vol. IV, p. 117) that when the Chazon Ish was asked about answering amen in the middle of the perek after Birchas Kohanim, he answered, “that it is not explained to him now, and he needs to delve into it.”
In Harav Chaim Kanievsky’s introduction to sefer Nachalas Eliyahu, he wrote that Rav Eliyahu Dushnitzer also ruled that one should stop in the middle of saying Krias Shema and the brachos to answer amen after Birchas Kohanim. Rav Chaim explained (ibid) that it is possible that the reason is that Birchas Kohanim has the din of a “davar shebikedushah” said in a minyan of ten that pause to answer even in the middle of the perek, because the kohanim do not offer the brachah with less than ten people (Megillah 23b), and as the Shulchan Aruch Harav explains (66 5) that this is why we pause to answer amen after the brachos of the olim to the Torah, even in the middle of the perek.
2. The Pekudas Elazar (66 3) says that because the Kohanim only make this brachah with ten people, the halachah of answering amen after it is like the din of a “davar shebikdushah” where one pauses even in the middle of the perek to answer, and the Shu”t Yabia Omer concurs (Orach Chaim Vol. VIII 12:5).
3. Even the ones who have a custom to answer amen after the chazzan when there are no Kohanim should not stop for this reason (Halichos Shlomo – Tefillah Chap. 10:5).
