[Avodah] Tefila Over Loudspeakers At a Big Gatherings

[Zev Sero]

On 4/11/2011 6:47 AM, Prof. Levine wrote:
> Similarly he says if you are standing in a minyan and cannot hear the chazzan, but only know that amen is being said because you hear it on the speaker system, then you may answer amen together with the Tzibbur.  Not because you are answering to the loudspeaker but rather because you are part of a minyan.  Although you do not technically hear what they are saying, the loudspeaker indicates this to you.  However if you are not standing in the presence of the minyan you may not answer. (Halichos Shlomo, Tefila 22:15)

Why not?  No matter where you are, you know that a bracha has just been
said, so why shouldn't you say amen?  Why is it necessary either to have
heard the speaker say it, *or* to be in the same tzibbur as those who
heard it?   The issur on saying amen to a bracha you haven't heard is only
because you don't know whether it was to Hashem or to AZ; in this case you
know that it was to Hashem, so isn't it right and proper to acknowledge it
with an amen?   If someone were standing outside the Alexandria synagogue
and through the window saw the flag waving, and thus knew that a bracha had
just been said,should he not answer amen?!


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Zev Sero        If they use these guns against us once, at that moment
zev at sero.name   the Oslo Accord will be annulled and the IDF will
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