[Avodah] Rav Aviner on Amen Meals

[Chana Luntz]

RTK writes:

> I believe that is also new [or new-ish]
>  
> I think the main impetus behind the "amen fad" was the
> campaign of an  
> unfortunate young woman who was dying of cancer and spent her 
> last years trying  to 
> spread the message, in the hopes it would give her a zechus 
> and a  refuah.  I 
> don't remember her name but I think she wrote a book, or 
> maybe  somebody wrote 
> a book about her.

There might perhaps be some similarities to the practice in a Sephardi shiva
house, however, where it is traditional for those coming to be menachem avel
to eat (unlike in an Ashkenazi shiva house) - with the rationale (as it was
explained to me) being so that those coming will make brochos over the food,
the merit of which somehow accrues to the deceased.  It is thus customary to
have a range of foods to offer those coming to the shiva house so as to
enable as many different brochos as possible.  This practice is, however,
less about the answering of amen than of enabling the making of the brochos
themselves.  On the other hand, unlike these others, I doubt that this
custom is new (or even newish).

I rather wonder though how these Amen parties (which seem from the
description to involve a fair amount of screaming out of amen) deal with the
halacha that one should not answer amen louder than the original blessing
(Orech Chaim siman 124 si'if 12 Brochos 45a) based on the pasuk gadlu
l'Hashem iti?
  
> 
> --Toby Katz

Regards

Chana