[Avodah] Amein and Amein Yesomah

[Micha Berger]

On Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 12:39:12AM -0500, R Rafi Hecht wrote to Avodah,
in reply to a discussion about a number of rabbis who said amein to a
"barukh ata Hashem E-lokeinu" (prounounced that way) "berakhah" on
neir chanukah made during the day:
: Amen = Kel Melech Ne'eman. I don't see why one cannot say that at any given
: time.

And we often say it to emphatically agree to informal berakhos: "May
your husband have a refu'ah sheleimah!" "Amein!"

We also have minhagic "amein"s in the middle of Qadish, even those of
us for whom one of them is "berikh Hu" instead. (Neither of which RYBS
did not say between Ge'ulah and Tefillah in Maariv.)

OTOH, there is the amein yesomah, which implies one cannot just say
"amein" willy-nilly. Anyone understand how to fit the two? Why are "amein
yesomah" or "amein chatufah" so terrible, and when is this wrong-ness
limited to?

(Okay, amein chatufah sounds like you are trying to just get it over with,
and imply not bothering to listen to the berakhah, so that's easier than
a disconnected amein. Although a single answer would be more elegant.)


As a side-note, "amein" does not equal "Keil Melekh Ne'eman" -- that's a
derashah, not a translation. "Amein" is a proclomation that something is
reliable. Think of the shoresh "emunah" in terms of belief, in terms of
trustworthiness (nasata venatata be'emunah?), and in terms of "uMordekhai
omein es Esteir..."

Don't make the same mistake that cost Marcheshvan (Merachshevan) the
amputation of its first syllable!

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

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