Although I skipped a week, I wanted to finish up one more topic
related to responding and paying attention to various parts of davening. There are many
points in the service where we are not allowed to talk; what should we do about responding
to the communal davening, if it should happen to be at another point?
To take the most extreme example-- if I am in the middle of the Amidah, is there
anything to which I may respond? The answer is no, but with one qualification. If the
surrounding tsibbur is up to certain vital parts of the davening-- qedushah, the yehe
sheme rabbah of qaddish, or barekhu-- I am permitted to stop my own prayers momentarily,
listen to the community prayer and then return to my own discussion with God.
This is an important and interesting distinction. Ordinarily, we say shome`a ke-`oneh,
that one who listens attentively to someone else’s recitation of a berakhah, or other
praise of God, can count as if that person recited it himself. For a common example, when
we listen to someone make kiddush, we all fulfill our oubligation through that attentive
listening. Here, when we listen, we should count it as if we were reciting the prayer, and
therefore prohibit a person in the middle of another prayer from doing so. Alternatively,
if we do not believe that listening counts as if the person recited it, there should be no
reason to require someone to stop and listen. Halakhah, however, allows for both
possibilities— listening is considered a valid participation in that prayer but not
an interruption of one’s personal prayers.
After the conclusion of the essential Amidah, the blessing of hamevarekh et amo yisrael
ba-shalom, there is more room for leniency. Some aharonim believe that nowadays, when the
recitation of Eloqai netsor is well-nigh universal, that has the same rules as the rest of
the Amidah. Others, however, note that Eloqai netsor began as private additions at the end
of davening and therefore permit responding to these parts of the prayers— qedushah,
etc. That opinion is certainly helped by those who recite the words "yihyu le-ratson,
etc." after the berakhah of hamevarekh et amo yisrael ba-shalom. Since the words
"yihyu le-ratson" signal the end of davening, the person praying has indicated
that the body of prayers is over, and therefore in responding to other blessings or
prayers is not interrupting his own Amidah.
Saying we can stop in the middle of the Amidah to listen to qedushah might be
misleading, since in that situation we only stop and listen to two parts of the
qedushah,the verses of qadosh, qadosh, qadosh, and the next verse barukh kevod Hashem
mi-meqomo. The lead-in verse and the closing verse, while part of qedushah for those who
are free to fully join the tsibbur in the full qedushah and hazarat haShatz experience,
are not sufficiently significant to require one to continue delaying one’s personal
prayers.
During the recitation of Shema, we are able to actually answer these important parts of
the davening. That is, if the communal prayers reach qedusha while we are in the middle of
reciting Shema, we are allowed to get up and answer (and so, too, for qadish, barekhu, and
even modim, although in that last one it is only the word modim that we are allowed to
say, simply to show that we are joining the community in thanking God). This halakhah
about Shema is actually related to a broader set of halakhot about Shema, those of when we
can and cannot respond to other people.
In brief, we distinguish between bein haperaqim and be-emtsa haperaqim, whether a
person is in-between sections of Shema— when it is permissible to respond to someone
else’s greeting and to initiate a greeting to someone worthy of especial respect. In
the middle of a section— during the recitation of ve-hayah im shamo`a, for
example— we can only greet those we are obligated to hold in awe, such as parents or
a close teacher, or who hold power over us, such as a king or high government official,
whose wrath we dare not incur. We may respond, however, to an adam nikhbad, a person of
honor, even in the middle of a verse— although ideally, we should either finish the
verse or at least the clause of the verse before responding. Given these rules for
response in general, we see why we are also allowed to respond to the central responsive
sections of the prayers.
One more point in the course of davening where responding is not allowed is in the
middle of laying tefillin. Since the two parts of the tefillin are one mitsvah, we are not
supposed to interrupt that action with any speech—even answering amen. In those
situations, just like with one who is saying the Amidah, we would stop what we were doing,
listen to the section of davening that led to our stopping, and then resume.
In other portions of prayers— even in the middle of pesuqei de-zimra, the psalms
and verses we recite between barukh she-amar and yishtabah— we are permitted to
respond to all berakhot that we hear. So if, for example, we had come to shul early, and
were already at ashrei when the hazzan began birkhot hashahar, we could respond to those
berakhot by saying amen. Shabbat Shalom.
