Post by Rabbi Neil on Apr 23, 2020 17:52:16 GMT
Asher asked me a question the other day, and asked if I might give a sermon on the answer. His question was this – Why do we have to say Amen when we don’t know what the Hebrew words mean? It’s a great question, and I’d like to share the answer as my sermon this evening.
Let’s look at the first part of the question. Why do we have to say Amen? That in and of itself leads to two more questions, starting with ‘what is the word Amen?’ In Talmud (Sh’vuot 36a), Rabbi Yosei bar Rabbi Chanina says of the word Amen that it contains an oath, an acceptance of the previous statement and a confirmation of the preceding statement statement. The Gemara, the unattributed commentary, uses sources to explain that Amen can be used to commit to something, to agree that something should happen in the future or to agree with whatever has just been stated. This is an extremely powerful word. Again in Talmud (Sanhedrin 111a), Rabbi Meir says that from the moment that a child says Amen, the gates of righteousness are opened to them. Amen unlocks the heavenly gates! That’s particularly because of the idea of Amen being used as a sign of commitment or as agreement. It also comes from the Talmudic notion (Berachot 119a) that Amen is an acrostic in which the three Hebrew letters aleph, mem, nun stand for El Melech Ne’eman, meaning God is a faithful ruler. So, whenever we say the word Amen, what we’re really doing is expressing faithful belief in God. The gates of heaven are opened when we say Amen because we’re saying “I believe in God,” or because we’re agreeing with someone else’s expression of belief in God. This helps us with the other part of the first question – why do we have to say Amen? The answer is, we don’t! If you don’t believe something, don’t agree with it. If prayer is the pure expression of self in the Presence of God, then it needs to be totally honest. Saying Amen is a choice, a choice that is presented to us every time we hear either someone else’s prayer or hear something we agree with.
It is said that the one who responds Amen receives a greater reward than the one who said the original blessing being replied to. That is because Amen not only acknowledges the blessing of one person but also adds the confirmation of the second person. In essence, Amen doubles the godliness of the prayer recited by the first person! It doesn’t have to be a response to a blessing, though. As I said before, Amen contains three potential statements, one of which is acceptance of the previous statement. Someone could merely be saying something and you could be responding favorably to it. Thus at the end of my sermons, I invite the community to say Amen if they agree with the message of that sermon. Nobody has to – I certainly don’t pay attention to who doesn’t say it and then challenge them afterwards why they didn’t agree with me! Some Sephardi Jews have the custom of saying Amen after their own blessing but this isn’t a widely spread custom because it basically means you’re agreeing with what you’ve just said, which should always happen!
As an important aside, the Rabbis in Talmud prescribed how one should say Amen. In Tractate Berachot (47a), Rav Chisda says that one who offer an excessive amen is mistaken. In other words, an Amen response should not be drawn out. At the same time, the Sages say that Amen should not be too short – it should not be abbreviated in which it misses the first syllable, it should not be truncated in which it misses the second syllable and it should not be orphaned in which it is recited without being aware which blessing it is responding to. In other words, not too short and not too long. Ben Azzai takes all this a little far by saying that whoever recites an orphaned amen shall have orphaned children, whoever recites an abbreviated amen shall have their days abbreviated and whoever recites a trunctated amen with have their days truncated. He says that one should extend one’s Amen so that one’s days are extended. However, it is generally understood that the Amen response should not be too long. It also should not be too loud – only as loud as the original blessing itself, so that it does not take precedence over the blessing it is responding to. There is even a responsum over whether or not one should say Amen over a live broadcast. [The answer is yes, by the way. Not so with a movie, though, but that’s a whole other issue!]
The second part of the question relates to not understanding the Hebrew prayers. This is not a new question for Judaism. One twelfth century author (Samuel the Pious) wrote (Sefer ha-Yir’ah, SHP, 11, q. Ivan G. Marcus, The Devotional Ideals of Ashkenazi Pietism, Jewish Spirituality, vol. 1 - From the Bible Through the Middle Ages, ed. Arthur Green, p. 363-4) “If someone comes to you who does not understand Hebrew but is a God-fearer…., tell them to learn the order of the service in a language that they understand. Prayer consists of the mind understanding [what is said]. If a person’s mind does not comprehend what comes out of his mouth, in what way does he derive any benefit?” For over 500 years, siddurim have contained translations to ensure that people knew what was being recited. The problem is that all translations take us away from the core meaning of the text because of linguistic nuances. So, we recite many of our traditional prayers in Hebrew to maintain the integrity of their message, while providing translation which is an approximation to their meaning. So, if you want to understand what the prayers mean, look at the translation.
But what if there is no translation? For example, what if someone is about to eat some food and says a blessing in Hebrew but you don’t know exactly what they’re saying? The answer is to look at what they’re about to eat. If it’s an apple, for example, you know that their intention is to be thankful for the apple. The exact words they are saying are praise of God who creates the fruit of the tree but when we hear someone say a blessing, are we responding to the words or to their statement? Are we saying Amen to the words or to the person saying the words? If it’s the latter, as I believe it is, then we don’t need to know the exact wording, just the intention of the prayer.
When we say Amen in our prayer service, then, we’re agreeing with what we understand the prayer to have said. An Orphaned Amen is when we’ve heard a blessing or prayer but don’t know what it is at all. But if we get the gist, if we have a strong sense of what the prayer is about, then that cannot be an Orphaned Amen. So, it is incumbent upon us all to make our prayers easily understood by others who may respond Amen to them. In a prayer service, this means that we need to have translation. Where there is no liturgy, we should probably ensure that those around us understand what is being said if it isn’t obvious from the context, just so that they can reply Amen authentically.
This question, then, has opened up some very interesting and important avenues when it comes to kavannah, to intention. Amen is an expression of intention, either to commit to an oath or to agree with something that was just said. Amen is a reminder that we need to listen to what has been said before us, which means we need to diligently pay attention. May we, then, be given many opportunities to respond Amen by paying attention to the words of those around us. May we seek to agree and validate the genuine heartfelt positive expressions of others. And may we open the gates of righteousness for ourselves and for others through everything we say and do, and let us say…. well, you know…!
Let’s look at the first part of the question. Why do we have to say Amen? That in and of itself leads to two more questions, starting with ‘what is the word Amen?’ In Talmud (Sh’vuot 36a), Rabbi Yosei bar Rabbi Chanina says of the word Amen that it contains an oath, an acceptance of the previous statement and a confirmation of the preceding statement statement. The Gemara, the unattributed commentary, uses sources to explain that Amen can be used to commit to something, to agree that something should happen in the future or to agree with whatever has just been stated. This is an extremely powerful word. Again in Talmud (Sanhedrin 111a), Rabbi Meir says that from the moment that a child says Amen, the gates of righteousness are opened to them. Amen unlocks the heavenly gates! That’s particularly because of the idea of Amen being used as a sign of commitment or as agreement. It also comes from the Talmudic notion (Berachot 119a) that Amen is an acrostic in which the three Hebrew letters aleph, mem, nun stand for El Melech Ne’eman, meaning God is a faithful ruler. So, whenever we say the word Amen, what we’re really doing is expressing faithful belief in God. The gates of heaven are opened when we say Amen because we’re saying “I believe in God,” or because we’re agreeing with someone else’s expression of belief in God. This helps us with the other part of the first question – why do we have to say Amen? The answer is, we don’t! If you don’t believe something, don’t agree with it. If prayer is the pure expression of self in the Presence of God, then it needs to be totally honest. Saying Amen is a choice, a choice that is presented to us every time we hear either someone else’s prayer or hear something we agree with.
It is said that the one who responds Amen receives a greater reward than the one who said the original blessing being replied to. That is because Amen not only acknowledges the blessing of one person but also adds the confirmation of the second person. In essence, Amen doubles the godliness of the prayer recited by the first person! It doesn’t have to be a response to a blessing, though. As I said before, Amen contains three potential statements, one of which is acceptance of the previous statement. Someone could merely be saying something and you could be responding favorably to it. Thus at the end of my sermons, I invite the community to say Amen if they agree with the message of that sermon. Nobody has to – I certainly don’t pay attention to who doesn’t say it and then challenge them afterwards why they didn’t agree with me! Some Sephardi Jews have the custom of saying Amen after their own blessing but this isn’t a widely spread custom because it basically means you’re agreeing with what you’ve just said, which should always happen!
As an important aside, the Rabbis in Talmud prescribed how one should say Amen. In Tractate Berachot (47a), Rav Chisda says that one who offer an excessive amen is mistaken. In other words, an Amen response should not be drawn out. At the same time, the Sages say that Amen should not be too short – it should not be abbreviated in which it misses the first syllable, it should not be truncated in which it misses the second syllable and it should not be orphaned in which it is recited without being aware which blessing it is responding to. In other words, not too short and not too long. Ben Azzai takes all this a little far by saying that whoever recites an orphaned amen shall have orphaned children, whoever recites an abbreviated amen shall have their days abbreviated and whoever recites a trunctated amen with have their days truncated. He says that one should extend one’s Amen so that one’s days are extended. However, it is generally understood that the Amen response should not be too long. It also should not be too loud – only as loud as the original blessing itself, so that it does not take precedence over the blessing it is responding to. There is even a responsum over whether or not one should say Amen over a live broadcast. [The answer is yes, by the way. Not so with a movie, though, but that’s a whole other issue!]
The second part of the question relates to not understanding the Hebrew prayers. This is not a new question for Judaism. One twelfth century author (Samuel the Pious) wrote (Sefer ha-Yir’ah, SHP, 11, q. Ivan G. Marcus, The Devotional Ideals of Ashkenazi Pietism, Jewish Spirituality, vol. 1 - From the Bible Through the Middle Ages, ed. Arthur Green, p. 363-4) “If someone comes to you who does not understand Hebrew but is a God-fearer…., tell them to learn the order of the service in a language that they understand. Prayer consists of the mind understanding [what is said]. If a person’s mind does not comprehend what comes out of his mouth, in what way does he derive any benefit?” For over 500 years, siddurim have contained translations to ensure that people knew what was being recited. The problem is that all translations take us away from the core meaning of the text because of linguistic nuances. So, we recite many of our traditional prayers in Hebrew to maintain the integrity of their message, while providing translation which is an approximation to their meaning. So, if you want to understand what the prayers mean, look at the translation.
But what if there is no translation? For example, what if someone is about to eat some food and says a blessing in Hebrew but you don’t know exactly what they’re saying? The answer is to look at what they’re about to eat. If it’s an apple, for example, you know that their intention is to be thankful for the apple. The exact words they are saying are praise of God who creates the fruit of the tree but when we hear someone say a blessing, are we responding to the words or to their statement? Are we saying Amen to the words or to the person saying the words? If it’s the latter, as I believe it is, then we don’t need to know the exact wording, just the intention of the prayer.
When we say Amen in our prayer service, then, we’re agreeing with what we understand the prayer to have said. An Orphaned Amen is when we’ve heard a blessing or prayer but don’t know what it is at all. But if we get the gist, if we have a strong sense of what the prayer is about, then that cannot be an Orphaned Amen. So, it is incumbent upon us all to make our prayers easily understood by others who may respond Amen to them. In a prayer service, this means that we need to have translation. Where there is no liturgy, we should probably ensure that those around us understand what is being said if it isn’t obvious from the context, just so that they can reply Amen authentically.
This question, then, has opened up some very interesting and important avenues when it comes to kavannah, to intention. Amen is an expression of intention, either to commit to an oath or to agree with something that was just said. Amen is a reminder that we need to listen to what has been said before us, which means we need to diligently pay attention. May we, then, be given many opportunities to respond Amen by paying attention to the words of those around us. May we seek to agree and validate the genuine heartfelt positive expressions of others. And may we open the gates of righteousness for ourselves and for others through everything we say and do, and let us say…. well, you know…!