The Megaleh Amukos in this parashah reveals that the root of Yosef Hatzaddik is in the sod of amen, as alluded by the passuk said about him at the beginning of the parashah (Bereishis 37:3): בן זקנים הוא– and the acronym of the last letters is amen.
We can say that this is also manifested in the description “tzaddik” that Yosef was given (see Yoma 35b, and in other places), and indeed, his name was thus established for generations as “Yosef Hatzaddik.” Rabbeinu Bechayei says that his adherence to answer amen gives a person the merit of being called “tzaddik” as it says (Yeshayah 26:2): “Pischu she’arim veyavo goy tzaddik shomer emunim,” so Yisrael is called a “goy tzaddik” in the merit of their being strict to answer amen (Kad Hakemach, Emunah).
Hashem gave me the zechus to be close to one of the special tzaddikim that He planted in the last generation, the Rosh Yeshivah Rav Aharon Yehuda Leib Steinman, zy”a, whose seventh yahrtzeit is this Wednesday.
I merited to know him well and to see his special affinity for answering amen. I saw his dveikus to anything relating to the mitzvah of answering amen, and this is well known to anyone who was close to him.
We always remember the wondrous and moving scene that took place in his home each morning. A short time after dawn, before Shacharis vasikin began in his home, he would stand up to say Birchos Hashachar for the tzibbur. The brachos were said word for word, like he was counting coins, and all those gathered would answer amen after him. After saying the brachos, he stayed in his place to hear the brachos from the others gathered there and to answer amen to them.
The Rosh Yeshivah would often urge his followers about the virtue of answering amen, and its importance, and he would wonder how people could be lax in this mitzvah.
“In Olam Haba we will see that every amen is worth millions,” he would cry out from his pure heart. And these are not just random words! They obligate all those who follow his light to introspect and see how they treat the mitzvah of answering amen, and especially the minhag he held so dear – saying Birchos Hashachar bechavrusa.
I remember that at one of the gatherings of Bney Emunim that he attended, when I asked him to speak about the importance of answering amen, he told me in surprise, with a smile on his lips: “If Chazal write such lofty things about answering amen, what’s there to add on the subject?”
Indeed, there is nothing to add! We will follow the path of tzaddik, we will rise early and go to shul to answer amen to the Birchos Hashachar of other mispallelim, and perhaps this way we will soon see the fulfillment of the words (Tehillim 34:16): “Einei Hashem el tzaddikim v’oznav el shavasam.”
Good Shabbos
Yaakov Dov Marmurstein
