[Avodah] "v'imru amen"

[SBA]

From: "Aryeh Stein" <>
Subject: [Avodah] Fwd: Reminder - Monday evening begin Prayer forRain
>>>It's the old minnek in general (as so often...). The "ve-imru
omein" seems to have crept in from the end of gantz kaddish both to
Eloukai netzour and the end of benshen. It doesn't make sense unless
it's said to somebody else, does it?>>>
============================================
I'm pretty sure we've discussed this on Avodah before, but RSZA
explains that when we say "v'imru amen" in our silent shemonah esrai,
we are asking the malachim (who escort us everywhere we go) to answer
amen.
>>

I too remembered this discussion and made a search and
found that it was only 8 months ago!
We sure forget things fast around here...
http://www.aishdas.org/avodah/vol17/v17n009.shtml

Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 12:14:16 +0200
From: Minden <phminden at arcor.de>
Subject: Re: to whom are we whispering ?

> From: "D&E-H Bannett" <>
>> And while on the subject, the time may have come for another round on
>> Avodah of to whom one multi-bows when stepping back at end of shmoneh
>> esrei and more important to whom are we whispering when asking to
>> answer Amen?

[RSBA:]
> Siddur Otzar Hatefilos, Likutei Maharich, RS Schwab, Boruch She'omar all
> say that we are whispering to the Malochim - that accompany a person all
> the time. [Maybe 'oseh sholom BIMEROMOV' indicates this?] The earliest
> source seems to be Mateh Moshe - which some cite.
> The OH also brings a nusach - IIRC - Machzor [or Siddur] Roma - that
> indeed does not include the 'Ve'imru Omein' at the end of SE.

This is a bedieved explanation (aetiology). It's simply an error: people
automatically went on with "ve'imru omein" after "ouse sholoum". The
same error occurs at the end of benshen, unless somebody is leading it.