[Avodah] brochos from the amud (was: tefillat haderech)

[Sholom Simon via Avodah]

>R' Zev Sero asked:
>
> > I actually had meant to post about this, since I've been
> > wondering for some time why it is that the world's minhag is for
> > each person to say their own bracha on hallel and sefira, after
> > hearing the chazan's bracha. Doesn't the usual rule of "berov
> > am" mean that everyone should be yotzei with his bracha?

R' Akiva Miller wrote:

>In theory (="l'halacha"), yes, you are correct. But in practice 
>(="l'maaseh") Rov Am gets beat by our lack of kavana. Rov Am is an 
>important hidur, but the ikar is to insure that one is yotzay, and 
>that is more easily insured by saying it oneself. (It's like if one 
>is forced to choose between an esrog which is definitely kosher but 
>only barely so, vs. one which is beautiful but *might* be pasul. To 
>me, it's a no-brainer that one would choose the barely kosher one.)
>
>This explanation fits my previous post well: We are all yotzay with 
>someone else's bracha on the shofar and megillah, but NOT because of 
>Rov Am, only because the bracha is somewhat risky because I'm 
>relying on someone else.

Slight change of topic: I'm still trying to wrap my head around the 
idea that we don't seem to have a chashash of a brocha l'vatalah.  I 
mean, you have a sh'tz up there, saying a brocho out loud -- and he's 
intentionally trying to be motzi _some_ others (whoever has missed a 
day) and everybody says amen, and then they say the brocho 
themselves.  No chashash for an issur d'oraissa?  Shomea k'onen 
doesn't apply at all?  What if you are in the shul and you're not 
thinking about the issue of being yotzie, you're just thinking about 
which day it is, and/or you simply have stam kavanah.  No chashash 
for an issur d'oraissa?

Apparently not because almost everybody does that.  But I don't get it.

(To satisfy my own comfort level, my preferred action to is to focus 
and have kavanah to be  yotzie with the brocho, say amen, and then I 
don't have any chashash here).

-- Sholom