[Avodah] Baruch Dayan Emes?

[Akiva Miller]

.
Sometimes, I hear people say "Baruch Dayan Emes", and sometimes I hear
"Baruch Dayan HAemes" (with the Heh prefix). A quick look in any siddur
shows that the Heh is supposed to be included, and I have wondered whether
those who omit the Heh are simply slurring it. But the recent rise of
abbreviations in text messages, where this appears as "BDE", suggest that
the Heh is missing deliberately, and I have wondered if dropping the Heh
might be justified.

Today's Kitzur Shulchan Aruch Yomi includes halacha 59:6, where the KSA
paskens that in certain cases, where the loss is felt strongly, one should
say, "Baruch Atah Hashem E-okeinu Melech Haolam Dayan Ha'emes", but in
other cases, where one is not so upset, he skips Shem U'Malchus, and says
merely "Baruch Dayan Emes," with*out* the Heh.

I understand that one should invoke Hashem's Name only in serious cases,
but is that the significance of the Heh prefix? Why drop the Heh if the
loss is not so acute?

I thought this might be a typo of some sort. But three different publishers
(ArtScroll, Feldheim [Sh'arim Metzyanim B'halacha], Shabsi Frankel) all
printed it as I translated - include the Heh in the long one, omit it in
the short. OTOH, two others (Metzudah and Sefaria) include the Heh in both.

Can anyone suggest other poskim who have weighed in on this? (Mishna Brura
223:8 does mention the idea of saying this bracha without Shem U'Malchus,
but he does not give the full text like the KSA does.)

I just now saw the Ateres Zekeinim on O"C 223, who says that for close
relatives one says the bracha with Shem U'Malchus but *without* the Heh,
and to say the bracha for others without Shem U'Malchus and also without
the Heh. That would make sense *IF* the bracha means the same thing with or
without the Heh. But I have 3 publishers who say that the KSA felt that
there *is* a difference between saying the Heh and omitting it.

Any thoughts?
advTHANKSance

Akiva Miller
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