[Avodah] Answering "Amen" To Various Brakhoth

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 08:12:30PM -0600, R Chanoch Bloom wrote:
: On Mon, 2009-01-12 at 05:29 -0600, R Jay F Shachter wrote:
: > It is regrettable that R' Pinxas Teitz is no longer alive to defend
: > himself...               A brakha can be recited in any language that
: > you understand.  The shliax tzibbur could have recited the entire
: > prayer service, except for birkath kohanim (which was probably not
: > done in R' Teitz's synagog), in English. Now, if you can fulfill your
: > obligation by listening to a brakha in English, assuming you
: > understand English and understand what is being said, then surely that
: > is no worse than listening to a brakha in bad Hebrew, assuming you
: > understand what is being said.

: I'm not sure where you get that it's OK to be shaliach tzibur if your
: pronunciation is bad. After all SA OC 53:12 says not to appoint a
: shaliach tzibbur who pronounces his alefs like they're ayins or
: vice-versa. RDYosef confirms in Halacha Berurah 53:24 that this hakpada
: is still relevant, unless there's nobody else qualified.

If it's Hebrew as per the local havarah, what makes it "bad"?

To put it another way... Say there are two guys in an Ashkenazi shul
who are pedantically inclined and pronounce a ches that is softer than a
chaf and each do their own notions of what was once the Ashkenazi ngayin
(the one that is only remembered by the /n/ in "Yankef"). Is the shul
supposed to only give the amud to these two gentlemen?

I raised the question of how to distinguish between accepted havarah
drift and error before. Ayin and alef is only one case. What about "sav"
and the Edot haMizrach who say "tav" even when refuyah? It clearly
reflects the limitations of local languages. What about a chataf patach
that is as long as a patach? "Yehiyeh" instead of "yihyeh"? The Askenazi
tendency to emphasize mil'eil instead of mil'ra? Which are "bad", and
which are simply "different"?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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