[Avodah] shatz saying things out loud a.k.a silent ga'al

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' David Bannett wrote:
> But every Ashkenazic Jew does say a self-Amen in Bonei
> Yerushalayim. 
> ...
> The self-amen is not an agreement of a reply to anything.
> It is a signal that indicates the end of a chativa, a
> single section or group of prayers.
> ...
> Ashkenazim dropped all except the one mentioned in Gemara
> Brakhot. Sefaradim retained all except those that were
> questionable.

Excellent post. I'd call it "exhaustive", if not for another example which was not mentioned: the self-amen at the end of Oseh Shalom Bimromav towards/at the end of Shmoneh Esreh and Birkas Hamazon.

The apparent and obvious reason why it was left out, is that Oseh Shalom is not a bracha. OTOH, it *is* a self-amen; one *is* saying Amen to his own prayer.

Even more perplexing is the previous word, "v'imru". This is quite appropriate in Kaddish, and removes it from being a self-amen to being a stage instruction. But its presence in the silent Shmoneh Esreh and the individual's Birkas Hamazon seems odd. It seems to me that if someone chose to include Oseh Shalom in these prayers, they could just as easily have ended it at "v'al kol Yisrael", leaving off the "v'imru amen". I wonder why they didn't.

Additional points: It is clear to me that Oseh Shalom fits in well with RDB's point about self-amens always being at the end of a major section. In Shmoneh Esray, we all say Oseh Shalom when stepping back, even though another short paragraph follows it. In Birkas Hamazon, both of my Sefaradi siddurim show Oseh Shalom as the very last line, and although Ashkenazim add another paragraph (Y'roo) afterward, I can easily imagine that there was a time when that paragraph had not been added yet.

Akiva Miller

____________________________________________________________
Click here to find Medical Transcription Training programs.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2131/fc/PnY6rbu1VbGBGQbS8kIWkIYct7fUpZ6lJulzwDap3Etcqm0bBpwim/