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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>the MB 66:35 (based upon earlier sources, eg. magen
avraham) offers three suggestions to avoid ansering Amen to the bracha of ga'al
yisrael, all suggestions to the congregation who will hear the bracha out
loud. there is no suggestion of the chazzan saying it softly.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>r. baruch epstein in his baruch she'amar roundly
criticizes those chazzanim who say it quietly, and if i recall, even has a
prohibition for it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>i remember seeing an article in haPardess defending
the chazzanim, but the arguments mustered were not impresive. on the other hand,
RYBS said that the bracha should be said aloud, and so it is practiced by R.
Sraya Devlitzki in his vatikin minyan in Bnei Brak, and thus has Rav Elyashiv
also paskened.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To me, it appears that if the problem could simply
be alleviated by the chazzan saying it quietly, why didn't the MB or anyone
earlier mention such an option.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Furthermore, according to the Rambam, tefillah
bezibbur begins with kadish and barchu and the chazzan should say the entire
birchot kriyat shma out loud, and that includes ga'al yisrael.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>in OH 59:4 there is a similar issue with the end of
ahava rabba/ahavat olam, and the mechaber says one shouldn't answer amen to that
bracha so that there should be no hefsek, and here the chazzanim don't say it
quietly but the medakdekim say it with the chazzan as suggested by ga'al
yisrael.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>And if one should retort that bnei ashkenaz are
not choshesh for this mechaber based upon the Remah there and MB
59:25, then one should paskin like the ramah in OH 66:7 to answer Amen after the
chazzan and evern reports that was the custom.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>thus it would appear that the chazzan's silence is
a minhag without Ta'am, for it is not consistent (ikvi).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>however, after all this, see r. Pheifer's
Ishei Yisrael, pp. 163-4, paragraph 24, and fn 83.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>shlomo pick</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>